Voting at Melodifestivalen

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There have been many voting systems used at Melodifestivalen over the course of its history. The Swedish broadcasters have experimented with various techniques over the years including splitting the juries by age, regional voting and an "expert" jury. Televoting was controversially first introduced in 1993, as an unannounced experiment. The Swedish telephone network promptly collapsed under the strain of phone calls being made^[1]. Televoting was permanently reintroduced in 1999, but the regional jury system was retained, and given a 50% weighting in the overall results. The current voting system has been controversial, as it is possible for the song which receives the most televotes not to win, as happened in 2005. The current televoting record is 2,072,918, set in 2007.

1 Summary of voting systems used
2 Tie-breaks
3 Jury regions
4 References

[edit] Summary of voting systems used

1959–1961	An expert jury was used.
1962	Postcard voting.
1963	As 1959-1961.
1965-1969	Regional juries in each of Sveriges Radio's regions. One point per jury member.
1971	Postcard voting in the three semifinals. Regional juries in each of Sveriges Radio's regions decided the final.
1972-1973	As 1965-1969.
1974-1975	Regional juries. Each regional jury member was given 10 points to award out to the songs as they wished. This led to ABBA winning with 302 points, the largest total ever (impossible under the current system.) In 1975 the number of jury members was increased from nine to eleven, but the number of points they could give was reduced to five.
1977-1980	Regional juries. The Borda count variation used in the Eurovision Song Contest at the time was used. Each jury awarded one to eight points, ten and finally twelve.
1981-1988	Regional juries. Juries each awarded 1, 2, 4, 6 and eight points to the five songs. In 1982 the number of contestants was increased to ten once again and a first round vote was used to reduce that number to five for the "super final". From 1984 to 1987 the juries were sorted by age, not region, but the voting system remained the same. Regional juries returned in 1988.
1989-1990	As 1977-1980.
1991-1992	As 1981-1988 with regional juries.
1993	A regional televote in which the regions' points were given in the same manner as the previous two competitions: 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8.
1994-1996	As 1981-1988 with regional juries.
1997	Regional juries. Juries awarded 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points to their top seven songs.
1998	As 1981-1988 with regional juries.
1999-present	Juries voted as 1997. Televoting points are given by multiplying each of the seven jury votes by the total number of juries — eleven, for example 1 × 11 = 11, 2 × 11 = 22 etc.

[edit] Tie-breaks

Up until 1998, in the event of a tie each jury would be called back to name their favourite song among the tied entries, with the song receiving the most votes being declared winner. This happened in 1978, when Björn Skifs tied for first place with Lasse Holm, Kikki Danielsson and Wizex, and Skifs was declared winner after he received the votes of eight of the eleven juries on the countback. Since 1999, the higher place in a tie has been awarded to the song which received the most votes from the televoters. As happened in 2005 when Nordman and Linda Bengtzing tied for ninth place in the final, but as Nordman had received eleven points from the televotes, and Bengtzing had not scored any, Nordman were given the higher place.