Well done Stormfeather!
On the voting system , a win by 1 vote is fine for me , but if it needs to be more conclusive... how about if (irrespective of the difference in votes) the top 2 (or possibly 3) stories went into a tiebreaker , and the winner came from them. That way , rather than study at length 30 or 40 stories those that are clearly seen as the most popular could be voted for. So we could have story deadline of the 21st , votes cast by the 28th and the last 3 used for voting on those. Doing it this way may get more votes , because some may be reluctant to cast a vote without facing the (generally enjoyable!) prospect of having to judge from so many entries in such a short period of time. Also , you may find it easier getting people from other parts of the forum to vote if they only have to read/pick from 2 or 3?