If people could call in votes, say up to 20 per person, how many more people would start paying attention to politics?  How many more votes would be cast for elected officials?  What would happen if it were done that way instead of the current way?

then george bush would be one of the best presidents you would ever have in the 21st century.
the usual morons that phone in 20 times would have 20 votes, whereas the sensible voters wouldnt want to call up 20 times.
frankly if you cant be bothered to leave your house then you wouldnt be a great gain to the political process. if its a matter of not being able to leave due to age, medical etc thats what postal voting is for (im assuming that's available in the usa).
I cant imagine that ending well, it would really only benefit the kind of people who partake in that kind of crappy "entertainment" clique.

thenumberone : Americans have the ability to do postal voting-- it's called the absentee ballot if you were curious to what it's called here.

As for how many people would vote for the President if you could call in if it were like American Idol?

I honestly think it's an abuse of the voting system if people could call in 20 times. The statistics would be so off and calling centers would be established for candidates where they could call 20 times, ditch the phone and call another 20 times. How would that be regulated? Disposable phones are a dime a dozen and would be perfect to use. Not to mention sending the methods of picking jurors out of the window. When you register to vote, you're committing yourself to jury duty. My roommate last year was summoned when we got back from our winter break and I was summoned at the end of the semester (so I might have to do jury duty in the fall then) and saying you're not committing voter fraud.

It also doesn't stop those who shouldn't be voting-- illegal immigrants, children under the age of 18, those with felonies. There's not enough information with just calling in your vote.

When someone fills out that piece of paper, they get sorted into a lot of different sections. Age, race, where they live, their parties. If you're working for one party, you want to target those in the same party and check on the undecided-- I spent a morning do that in the fall. It tells you what side a state leans to, which parts of the population leans where-- the numbers are amazing when you look at it. Which states can swing either way-- much like the state I live in.

I don't want to guess how many votes would be cast.

What would happen?

I'm honestly not sure. Part of what won Obama the 2008 election was his ability to reach the younger demographics through the power of Internet campaigning-- grass roots.

If I had to call in my vote, I wouldn't want to participate.