Eurovision Song Contest 2000
Voting procedure
### Voting procedure

The results of the 2000 contest were determined using the scoring system introduced in : each country awarded twelve points to its favourite entry, followed by ten points to its second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to one for the remaining songs which featured in the country's top ten, with countries unable to vote for their own entry. Each participating country was required to use [televoting](/wiki/Televoting "Televoting") to determine their points, with viewers able to register their vote by telephone for a total of five minutes following the performance of the last competing entry. Viewers could vote by calling one of twenty\-three different telephone numbers to represent the twenty\-four competing entries except that which represented their own country. Once phone lines were opened a video recap containing short clips of each competing entry with the accompanying phone number for voting was shown in order to aid viewers during the voting window, with each household able to vote a maximum of three times. Systems were also put in place to prevent [lobby groups](/wiki/Advocacy_group "Advocacy group") from one country voting for their entry by travelling to other countries.

Countries which were unable to hold a televote due to technological limitations could be granted an exception, and their points would then be determined by a jury. Countries conducting a televote were also required to appoint a jury, the votes of which could be used in case of a technical failure which prevents the televoting results from being rendered unusable. Each jury was composed of eight individuals, which was required to be split evenly between members of the public and music professionals, comprised additionally of an equal number of men and women, and below and above 30 years of age. Each jury member voted in secret and awarded between one and ten votes to each participating song, excluding that from their own country and with no abstentions permitted. The votes of each member were collected immediately following the country's performance and then tallied by the non\-voting jury chairperson to determine the points to be awarded. In any cases where two or more songs received the same number of votes, a show of hands by all jury members was used to determine the final placing; if a tie still remained, the youngest jury member would have the deciding vote. All juries were based in their own countries and followed the contest through television, seeing the performances just as the public watching at home would. Juries watched not only the contest itself on 13 May but also the final dress rehearsal, which was held on the same day and produced under the exact same conditions as the actual contest. In order to maintain the integrity of the vote, reception of the contest to the juries was severed during the announcement of the results until after the points for their country had been announced; the points to be awarded from the last five countries in the voting order were also required to be sent ahead of time via [fax](/wiki/Fax "Fax") to the contest organisers.


Is it possible for a country to exploit loopholes in the televoting system to gain an unfair advantage?