Fletcher Fans Ready To Vote High Schooler To Victory

Tonight, it’s in your hands.

singing is scheduled to appear on Simon Cowell’s X Factor talent show tonight for a second live performance with her newly formed group, , as the 17-year-old senior tries to stay in the ever-tightening competition for a $5 million recording contract.

But instead of the show’s celebrity judges deciding who stays and who goes home, the show turns to the television audience to decide.

Tonight’s show is set to air on the Fox television network at 8 p.m. and will carry live performances from the show’s 12 remaining finalists, Fletcher’s group among them. At the conclusion of the program, telephone lines will be opened, allowing the audience to cast votes for their favorite acts.

Also, in a first for network television, fans will be able to vote in their favorite acts using Twitter. Immediately following the live performance, fans will be able to register their votes by visiting the show's Twitter page and following @TheXFactorUSA.com. Viewers can then vote via private Direct Message, the network said Tuesday.

Supporters are at the ready.

A phalanx of Fletcher’s fans, all high school students and their families, will gather tonight at Wall High School for an X Factor viewing party, school officials said.

At the conclusion, cell phones will predicibly light up lines in support of the Girls’ Varsity Volleyball team co-captain and talented singer. E-mail messages from the school district’s various parent-teacher groups have also alerted parents of tonight’s program.

The high school’s viewing party is being hastily put together by the school’s Student Council, according to Kristin Scott, student council advisor.

The group is busily contacting local businesses, hoping for donations of t-shirts, gift cards or anything to make the event a success. The group hopes to continue to have the “Vote For Cari’’ parties each week that Fletcher remains on the show, Scott said.

The group hopes tonight’s first event is “successful enough that the kids keep come back each week,” Scott said.

Fletcher, a Wall High School senior and a captain of the girls varsity volleyball team, has defied odds and stayed in the competition where thousands of singing hopefuls have failed.

. But later in that same show, the judges announced that Fletcher had been grouped with three other women who were also cut as solo acts. Together, they would be allowed to continue on the competition as a group.

That group met and practiced at Fletcher’s Wall Township home earlier this year before heading off to X Factor judge Paula Abdul’s California estate for a round of competition. Video footage of the group at Fletcher's house was aired on the show, shot by Wall High School graduate and filmmaker Ryan Hutchins.