Shenanigans! ):
Something kind of horrible happaned over at ljshootout. The final poll had closed late because I was caught in that storm, and when I came back I was under enough heat so I just closed it immediately and since it was a tie we went to a runoff.
...and I didn't get around to looking for fake accounts voting. Well just now, right before announcing the season winner, I thought I'd spot check a few names I didn't recognize. Aaaand well.... it turns out there were a LOT of fake accounts voting. 21 to be exact.
With these fake votes discarded the results of that vote and the subsequent runoff may well be completely different. So it's a dilemma.
I posted a poll over at the community but it's community-only (in retrospect I should have made it open so I could ask you guys to vote too). And I don't have a paid account anymore so I guess just answer in comments. I could really use some guidance on how this should be resolved:
(1) Should these usernames be discarded from the poll?
(A) Yes
(B) Yes with a specific exception I will tell you about in comments
(C) Yes but unfortunately the poll already took place, make no changes to who remains in
(D) No, end of story.
(2) Assuming the votes are discarded...
(A)Consider the runoff poll to be against whichever two actually survived the adjusted poll
(B) Consider all three to be in for the runoff poll
(C) Do not change who went on to the runoff poll
(D) If it's not a tie do not consider the runoff to have occured at all!
***EDIT - There seems to be a general consensus the names should be discarded so that's no longer a question. HOWEVER, since there was a vote after this one (the messed up vote was the "final" but it was between three people and then there was a runoff), and especially since the runoff only occurred because there was a tie, there's still a totally open question as to how the runoff should be counted.
The main options seem to be to either run the runoff between the two top people who came out of the now-adjusted final poll (all three of them had pictures in the runoff, the already-eliminated person just couldn't win), or not count the runoff as happening at all. The argument in favour of the runoff itself being discounted is that it wouldn't have occurred if there wasn't a tie. The argument in favour of counting the runoff is that, well, it DID occur, and is an otherwise valid poll. Opinions greatly appreciated.