I think it won't be about the "first" or "second" place anyway. B-K just need to get as much votes as it takes to get the attention of the team & get into consideration. Of course, an overwhelming amount of votes will surely helpful, and we should spread the word as far as possible. But we don't know how they actually choose their fighters... it will certainly not about the ranking of all voted characters...
Sakurai has explained a bit about how fighters are chosen actually. Let me quote it:
"We conduct a character popularity poll both domestically and internationally. We also research games that are currently being developed. After that, it's pretty much up to us, with a touch of convenience.
There are a lot things to take into account when deciding [characters]. Does the character have something inherently unique about them? Can that be used to make
Smash Bros. interesting? Is the character a representative character [for the source material]? Do they conflict at all with other characters? Was there anything about them that stood out when we began development?
As for who doesn't make the cut, characters from a series that has no future are rarely chosen. Also, fighters that switch models are a different matter.
Basically, any character is accepted if I believe it works [in the game]. On the other hand, even if a character is unique, if they overlap with other characters and aren't unique as a fighter, they are rejected."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit: I'll go ahead and add whats been said about third party characters too, since thats especially important here.:
"First off, I think about which third-party characters would make suitable guests for the game before beginning any negotiations. It goes without saying that Mega Man is a guest who could fit Smash Bros. with his range of moves and attacks, but PAC-MAN as a guest fighter needed some careful consideration.
In actual fact, since the development team is different for this game as compared to previous iterations, even the veteran characters were remade from scratch.
The process, however, of actually creating a character often takes well over a year, where we are constantly working on the model, the animations, the audio and the balancing.
I know that some sequels focus on fixing problems with the last game, but if we had taken that approach then we would have had less than half as many new characters, and the game wouldn’t have felt so different from the last one.
To do this we need to listen not just to the biggest fans, but to a whole range of different users to give everyone an experience that is fun."
There is more I have dug up on third party characters, but I haven't been able to find the source of the following info.. so I'll instead try to word it the best I can myself.
1. The character has to have been on at least ONE nintendo console
2. The Character MUST be a videogame Character
3. (Technically, They would also have to be able to get permission from the
owner in the first place)
Its important to keep in mind that 3rd Party characters are basically considered
guests to the series. This means it very likely for 3rd party characters to
not appear in a following sequel.. (We have Snake as current evidence of this, at least so far anyway)
"Its also considered a very special case. There are often many different hoops
to jump through to get a third party Character into the game. It can be
difficult making sure all parties involved are happy with how things are.
(and getting approvals in the first place for that matter)"
