To use the forum poll system would make everything public and could be potentially embarrassing to an individual(s). Lets say for example Author A receives 10, Author B 2, Author C 8, and Author D 0. Imagine how Authors B & D would feel with that being known.
Myr does have a program that he has used. Because it is time consuming for him to set up, the WST developed the system we are using currently. Sat8997 graciously volunteered to receive the nominations. When the nomination process was over, she supplied us with the top five nominee's. She alone knows how many nominations a story or author received.
Kurt volunteered to receive the votes. When the voting is over, he will post the list of winners to us (WST) and not the number of votes received. The award banners will then be made up for posting.
The Writers Support Team is made up of readers, authors, and editors. The authors, for obvious reasons, voluntarily stay out of any discussion.