THE 'AMERICAN' WAY TO VOTE 'IDOL' IRREGULARITIES HAVE FANS WONDERING IF BEST BELTER WILL WIN.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

Perhaps this year's ``American Idol'' winner should be accompanied by an asterisk in pop culture's history books: *Idiot voters.

When La Toya London, she of the elegant, quiet-storm voice, and gospel belter Jennifer Hudson - both of whom were expected to battle for the championship - were voted out early, fans reacted with shock and outrage. Some even accused both the voting system, with its insufficient number of phone lines, and its users of racism.

When crooner John Stevens survived weeks of subpar performances, it was chalked up to love-struck teenage girls, who have more time to kill to place repeated calls than more sensible viewers. When Jasmine Trias failed to get voted out, conspiracy theorists blamed it on Fox's time-zone rules that allowed voters from Trias' home state of Hawaii (population 1,244,000) as much time and as many phone lines as the scores of millions living on the East and West coasts. Conspiracy theorists are not always wrong: In recent votes, Hawaii was third in voting, just behind the far more populous states of New York and California.

The way voters have gone, had notorious ``She Bangs'' mangler William Hung slipped past the judges, he might still be in the running.

Trias was finally voted out last week - Fox retains the right to change the voting rules, one Daily News reader noted, so perhaps the network finally limited the lines available to Hawaii - and tonight, finalists Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo will compete for the title and the record contract. Early on, judges expected Barrino to be one of the final three with London and Hudson in a ``battle of the divas,'' while more recently, Simon Cowell, known as the show's ``mean'' judge, told The New York Times he believes DeGarmo will win, adding, ``All the things people are complaining about now - the wrong person being kicked out, that person shouldn't be in - I love all that. I think it's interesting.''

Fox executives declined to comment on the controversy, but Daily News readers had plenty to say: When we asked you for your experiences on trying to vote for your ``American Idol'' favorites, we were inundated by an avalanche of e-mails.

Many reflected the comments of Karla Rounds of Agoura Hills, who, in a phone interview, told the Daily News, ``It's affected my perception of the show. Every week John Stevens stayed on, the show got more tarnished. I don't know why he was picked to begin with.

``My teenage daughter and I both tried to phone in votes, and we got one vote in over the course of two hours,'' Rounds lamented. ``I was hoping for the battle of the three black divas. It's demoralizing, and you don't feel as if you're part of the process if you can't get a vote in. It's really affected my daughter and her group - they're not watching as much and not as avidly, because they don't feel like they can vote.''

Joan Giglione of Tarzana, a professor at California State University, Fullerton, sent the Daily News a detailed analysis of the voting woes. She cited anecdotal evidence that some viewers had become discouraged by their inability to machete their way through unrelenting busy signals.

``It's like having two West Coast teams in a sports final - the rest of the country is just not interested,'' she said. ``The most important thing about the show is the audience vote - the audience needs to feel it's not being disenfranchised. They want to know the vote is fair and that the producers do care. The problem is, the audience is not sure the producers kept the vote fair.''

Giglione has followed online message boards dedicated to the series, so while she believes ``the voting's messed up,'' she also thinks a fairer voting policy ``wouldn't have made many material changes in the end. Jasmine wouldn't have gotten as far, but maybe that's it. Unlike previous 'Idol' contests, there has been no clear-cut winner from the beginning.''

Miguel Garza of North Hollywood notes that voters often seem to rally around contestants who have been roughed up by judge Cowell in a sort of backlash. ``I think that his comments are valid but not constructed in the best possible way. He could be more constructive than he is rude, but his points are valid.''

All three readers agree that Fox should limit the number of votes allowed from each phone number, a move that would give fans without speed-dial a better chance of participating. But it's also one that the network may be loath to make since it would greatly reduce the show's bragging rights: Host Ryan Seacrest makes a big deal of the more than 20 million votes phoned in every week.

But failing that, Garza has another suggestion: Don't take it so personally. He says with a laugh, ``It's just TV!''

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) `IDOL' CHATTER

It's Fantasia and Diana, but our readers have QUITE a bit to say about how that happened

(2) It's group hug time for Diana DeGarmo, left, Fantasia Barrino and Jasmine Trias when the latter was voted off of ``American Idol.''