[Red Moon]

X Factor's Ruth Lorenzo's low vote due to phone blunder

A phoneline blunder almost cost singer Ruth Lorenzo her place on X Factor.

The sultry Spaniard found herself in the bottom two on Saturday after her voting number was shown with a digit missing.

Ruth, 25 – regarded as one of the favourites – was forced into a sing-off with rivals Girlband before going through to the next round.

Last night her friends and family were furious over the mix-up, which meant that at one stage viewers were given the wrong number to vote for her – and many fans couldn’t get through.

Ruth’s mum Eva said: “We tried for an hour and a quarter, but the lines were busy all the time.

“Then we suddenly realised the number shown on TV was wrong.”

An X Factor spokeswoman yesterday tried to play down the significance of the mistake.

She said: “During one short sequence, a single digit was missing from Ruth Lorenzo’s vote number.

“The incorrect number, was on screen for less than three seconds, and this was accompanied by an audio announcement giving the correct number.

“The error would not have changed the outcome of the vote.”

Source:Daily Mirror