With the whole Will Young / Gareth Gates thing, app everybody was shocked when Will won (why so, I dont know, he's brilliant) but I believe the Pop Idol results were released and Will was consistently getting more votes than Gareth every week, though it always appeared not to be that way as Gareth always seemed to be "saved" earlier.
I think if some of the results from this years x factor are to be believed, Laura was not getting as many votes as they thought she should be - just becasue she has a great voice, doesn't mean that people want to vote for her, as its the "package" they vote for.
IIRC, on the series where Girls Aloud were created, there was such an uproar as Sarah had sung fairly badly on her last performance, and there were comments from judges, and she was put into the group rather than Javine who was tipped to definately be one of the five. Though in retrospect, good choice, 'cause Javine is horrid. Though maybe if she'd had a sucessful pop career rather than her attempt, she would have kept her hands off her best friends man, but that's another story!
I dont get in an uproar about the votes / who wins / who goes through / who gets voted out simply because I do not vote. I have my favourites, but I dont vote. I dont buy records / albums. I do express my when some people go though!!