The problem is that it wasn't made clear if some people could enter more than once from the same e-mail. This probably led to TONS of people making new e-mails, spamming, etc... of course, stories I've heard of the PBS pairs sound certainly unfair and if sending 3000 e-mails was legitimate, then I should see no reason why you couldn't have one at least one pair...
Well the system will automatically delete duplicate emails from the same address when they choose but yes it they probably can't control for people making additional accounts. I don't think it's PBS's responsibility to go to extreme measures to catch people that cheat. If they had sold the tickets, there would still be plenty of people who couldn't win and even more probably who couldn't afford it. At least this is free and they even increased the total number of pairs by 25 in response to all the entries. I think by saying they would disregard multiple emails from one address, they made it clear that they were trying to give everyone a fair chance, so if people went and made 20 new accounts after all, it was obviously not done in good faith. Also I think by requiring the actual person who emailed to attend with GOVERNMENT-issued ID, they are trying to limit the people who just got all their friends and family members to enter who weren't even in the area. In my mind, PBS has done all it could to make it a reasonable contest, and even if I don't win, I'm glad a select few will get this amazing experience for FREE (discounting however far they may have decided to travel to attend).
