Righty ho, probably best I lock this for a couple of days.
Just to make a few points in response to various comments
-The polls have always ended at 23:59.59 on the last day of the month UK time. It's even a rule now >
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8326 . Now that is really clear it's a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. It has to end at some point and given I'm generally the one doing the ending it may as well be 23:59.59 where I live. If I ever move to Mexico things may change.
-I'm somewhat unclear where the assumption that the mods or 'people in the UK' wanted the Kona to win comes from? Or do some of you have super ESP powers (to go with others claimed) that enables you to read minds?
-The site is indeed UK-centric. Not especially by design, that's just the way it worked out. However US visitors also account for a large percentage of traffic, not least on this thread.
-Normal users are just as capable of fixing the poll as any of the mods or myself through registering multiple accounts. If one was going to do this I'd suggest it's probably better to put any multiple votes in ahead of time to prevent cries of foul play.
-I have no visibility of who voted for what, just like any other user. I could modify the forum in order to obtain that information but what use would it be? I'm not looking to spend hours cross referencing usernames with post counts with IP address. If someone
really wants to then please volunteer.
-Some tactical voting does occur, that's true. But isn't that the case in every election (although of course generally interim/predicted results are gathered through opinion polls).
-It would be interesting indeed to run a BoTM poll without being able to preview the vote as it happens. However this would involve a custom mod to the forum software as best as I can tell and I have better things to do.