Major Shenanigans Error
Okay, this is awkward.
Since I came back late to close the final poll, and enough people were already griping about it being kept open too long, I didn't bother to check for suspicious activity in the voting. On any account, the season had thus far been completely free of shadiness.
Well I decided to spot check a few names of people who voted that I didn't recognize. Several of them had been created during the poll and had no one friended. Alarmed, I proceeded to check every name I didn't recognize. The following accounts were created during the poll and have no one friended, and I am going to propose they should be / should have been discarded.
*** EDIT -- There seems to be a consensus that the 21 names should be discarded, and the person who principally benefited from them has given the go-ahead to do that.
HOWEVER, it remains a question as to whether the runoff should be counted as being between the two persons who would have survived the final round, or the runoff should be considered not to have happened. In favour of discarding it is the fact that it only happened because there was a tie, however in favour of keeping it is the argument that as long as it happened and is a completely valid poll it should be used.
/ EDIT
I'm not going to say who they voted for, but if they are/were discarded it may change the outcome of the vote.
Poll Corrective Measures
I think I've covered all courses of action in the above poll. Basically we can either sweep this under the rug and pretend nothing happened, consider the runoff (which all three conveniently ran in) to be against all three, or consider the runoff to be against whichever two actually survived the previous vote.
I'm very sorry and I deeply regret that this has occured. It of course deeply damages the reputation of this community. I could have just swept this revelation under the table and not told anyone but I have a very strong belief that justice must be served, even in little fun games like this. Please vote the way you honestly believe it should be resolved, without trying to think about who the various options would make the winner.
This poll will only be open for a few hours because I'm leaving for Turkey at around 3am tonight. If only a very small number of people vote I reserve the right to take a course of action other than what wins in this poll, but I assure you I will go with the most justified course I can possibly conceive of. I've also consulted the wisdom of clauderainsrm for advice and will be asking anyone else I feel has special qualifications on knowing how this should be resolved.