While Belmont has named the four finalists for Battle of the Bands, what has people talking is how they were chosen.
This year’s performers were chosen from eight finalists through a new online voting system.
According to the Belmont Showcase Series Instagram, each person would be “allowed to vote one time per hour” during the 48-hour voting period.
Unofficially, however, people could vote for their favorite bands as often as they wanted if they were slightly internet savvy. Multiples votes could be cast by opening several tabs, using incognito mode or clearing browser history.
The Vision tested the voting website and was able to vote twice within the same hour by clearing its browsing history.
The winning four bands each garnered more than 30,000 votes on a campus with 8,400 students.
Fallon Nell, senior adviser for Belmont Showcase Series which will put on Battle of the Belmont Bands, said that the voting platform “was not fraudulent” and that “nothing unexpected happened” in the voting process.
However, voting did not work in the way that the posted rules claimed it would, and bands that refused to exploit the system’s faults fell behind.
Jay Jamison, a sophomore, said she didn’t want to vote multiple times for her favorite band Lonely Vacations because she didn’t want to break the rules “in the fairness of other people.”
However, at least one band sought out multiple voters in order to make the lineup.
Sawyer Estok of Secondhand Sound said his band brought friends together in an apartment and “went at it.” Secondhand Sound had the highest number of votes with 42,071.
Members of at least two bands which will not be performing on Saturday at the Massey Performing Arts Center were frustrated by the voting methods.
“What I was really upset about was that it just became a competition to get the most people to vote as many times as they possibly could,” said Tim Miller from Our Brother George.
Juke of June’s keyboardist, Bradley Crow, agreed.
“We didn’t want to win that way.”
Article written by Joe Bendekovic, Lydia Fletcher and Katie Knipper. Photo courtesy of Belmont Showcase Series.
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