I think there are a few areas that may need a bit of clarifying in regards to how the Member of the Season works. I'll try to explain. c:
There are three stages when it comes to how a MOTS is chosen:
The first stage is "Nominations," where the community (not the admins) select whom they want to be nominated, out of a guideline that is provided by the staff team. The guideline was created to create fairness instead of violating it. How so, you may ask? ^^ If we take one guideline, there is a rule that you cannot vote for anyone in the same IP range as yourself--this was added because in the past, we have had members who nominated their own alternate accounts in attempt to give them a better chance of winning. To prevent that, we included that rule. There is another rule that requires someone to be above 25 posts, as this helps us ensure that the nominated person has at least played for a while and isn't a side account made to increase winning chances. The guidelines are staff-made, in order to create fairness, but we do not choose who is nomintated: that is entirely your choice. Staff will sometimes nominate a user, but we're not the main factor in choosing who is nominated.
The second stage is "Voting." Once the Nominations have ended and we see who has been nominated the most, in order to be considered a "Qualified "Member" (they have to be nominated three times). We then take all of the Qualified Members and put them into a poll that the community votes for. I believe there may have been some confusion regarding the "other" option, if you have only participated in the "Voting" stage. At the Voting stage, you can indeed only choose from the list, but the community is the one who makes that list.
The last stage is the "Winners," in which staff reviews the highest voted members and compiles that into the Winners thread. Staff are not required to vote unless there is a tie that needs to be broken. (Once the poll has ended, you can view for yourself the outcome of the votes.)
As mentioned above, sometimes a staff member will vote on the Nominations thread, but we aren't the ones choosing the winners. The point of Members of the Season is so that there is a little fun activity on the forum that gives a little recognition to the users who have been helpful and friendly over the season. It's a community-chosen outcome. c: