Although I do find it disheartening (not to mention a bit random in terms of voting results) that as of the date of Februs' stats, more people voted on fewer than 5 stories than voted on over 10. It is quite possible that a significant people did read most but voted on only their favorites (after a fair evaluation) to give those favorites the best chance of wining. That would be a perfectly fine judging strategy, in my opinion. More likely, many of those voters were voting only on their own (or their friends' stories), or made only a quick stab at the contest.
But who really cares? I almost always get more readers and more feedback (in the form of comments) on my cont4est stories. And I find it fun to READ how different authors approach the same challenge. I must say that, in the past, the top vote-getters were almost always among my favorite stories, so that the voting process (however flawed for all the reasons people cite), it produces a reasonable result. There's not way you can tweak the process that will make it totally 'fair.'
So everyone, quitcherbitchin and just enjoy the challenge!
On another note:
Alef:
they add spice to the site and give us something to chat (and quarrel?) about
What are friends for if not to quarrel with?