Does Cosmogirl have a thing against black people? Though it may seem unlikely, several African-American bloggers are now asking whether their influence caused the cuddly teen magazine to change the rules of a contest.

The contest, cosponsored by Take Action Hollywood, invited teenagers to submit short films about a social issue. Earlier this year, the films were posted on Cosmogirl's website, where readers were encouraged to vote for their favorites. The winner will receive $10,000 and be featured in the magazine's August issue.

On April 5, Patrice Elizabeth Grell Yursik, who writes the blog Afrobella, posted a message encouraging readers to vote for the film by Kiri Davis, the only African-American among the remaining three semi-finalists. "I'm guessing that Kiri's film might not appeal to the typical CosmoGirl demographic," wrote Yursik. "But if you ask me, Kiri is the future." Angel La followed up with a similar message on Concrete Loop, and within a few days Davis's film went from last place to first place in the voting. The rules, as they stood, allowed each person to cast one vote per day.

[Watch a featurette on Davis's short film after the jump!]

When Yursik went to vote this morning, however, she discovered the following message: "We have determined that the online voting has been corrupted as a result of one or more instances of tampering with the voting process by users. As a result, none of the online votes will be counted, and we will submit all three of the semi-finalists to our panel of experts for final judging and selection of a winner."

"I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist by any means, but could this be because Kiri was actually—gasp—winning?" wrote Yursik. "Is encouraging black women who identify with her film's message to vote for Kiri somehow against competition rules?"

La, meanwhile, responded by asking readers to write to Cosmogirl and complain. She tells Radar that she suspects the vote-tampering claim is bogus: "I don't want to speculate, but I personally believe that it wasn't going in the direction they wanted it to go in."

She says she has yet to hear back from Hearst Magazines, which publishes Cosmogirl, about why the contest was suspended. (A Hearst spokeswoman told Radar she would look into it.)

UPDATE: Cosmogirl responds. A spokeswoman offered this statement to Radar, "It is disappointing that people are jumping to conclusions and making false accusations before the winner has been determined. The Cosmogirl Take Action Hollywood Film Contest online voting was eliminated because it had been compromised by online voters. As has always been the case, the final winner will be chosen by a panel of celebrity judges. The films from the three semi-finalists are all incredible works of art and we know that the judges have a tough decision to make. The winner will be featured in the August 2007 issue of Cosmogirl."