Did AT&T Aid Kris Allen's Idol Win?

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - AT&T representatives were present at a Kris Allen viewing party in Arkansas for last week's American Idol finale where they handed out phones and demonstrated how to send text messages. And some are asking if that may have influenced Kris Allen's upset win over Adam Lambert. There are no reports of AT&T representatives being present at similar parties held for Lambert.

The New York Times reports that representatives of AT&T, "provided the free text messaging services at two parties in Arkansas after the final performance episode of 'American Idol' last week, according to the company and people at the events."

In a statement issued Tuesday, a spokesman for AT&T said, "In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community. A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested."

On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that AT&T said the employees did not influence the final results. In the future, AT&T said it will ensure employees understand that its sponsorship "celebrates the competition, not the individual contestants."

Fox and the show's producers issued the following statement: 'FOX and the producers of AMERICAN IDOL are absolutely certain that the results of this competition are fair, accurate and verified. Kris Allen is, without a doubt, the American Idol. We have an independent third-party monitoring procedure in place to insure the integrity of the voting process. In no way did any individuals unfairly influence the outcome of the competition."

It was reported by an Arkansas TV station that 38 million of the 100 million votes cast after the final performances came exclusively from Arkansas, but has since been retracted that report. AT&T issued a statement saying "AT&T does not divulge or confirm how many votes were cast in any state." The population of Arkansas as of July 2008 was about 2.8 million .

Viewers can vote as often as they like, but can only vote via text message if they are AT&T customers. The American Idol FAQs Web page states that in the event of power dialing "... a weekly monitoring procedure will be in place to prevent individuals from unfairly influencing the outcome of the voting by generating significant blocks of votes using technical enhancements."