Probably because of /b/'s vote manipulation in previous years. Another reason we "can't have nice things" on the internet -- systems that rely on implicit codes of civility still seem to break down when people can remain anonymous.
/b/'s vote manipulation lead to the selection of moot as most influential person, which is clearly correct, as moot's users influenced the voting process to ensure it.
except the award isn't "who is the most influential person on the internet", it's supposed to be "the most influential person of the year on the planet".
It's like when you cite raw polling results from the Daily Kos, and say its representative of American opinion. There's a lot of bias that needs to be taken into account.
Nevertheless is kind of weird that in orther to show that I'm not a bot I have to allow some app to read and post on my tweeter timeline... I guess this vote is a joke. Snowden might win but the lesson is that people haven't learned anything. :)
