I know we aren't supposed to be mentioning Etika, but in his poll, he literally put King K. Rool, Shovel Knight, and Shantae in the same category. Shovel Knight is his fanbase's favorite character. I guess he's not even trying to be subtle with this.
The poll is in alphabetical order, there are 26 letters in the alphabet, there are three polls. The first poll covers the first nine letters. The second poll ALSO covers nine. However, there are a lot of character with the letter S, apparently. Shantae and Shovel Knight are both early S characters "SH." In fact, there were no "J" characters, so naturally the second poll would start at K. He would have to be going out of his way to make sure that King K. Rool did not face off against Shovel Knight and Shantae to be honest. The last polls covers the remaining letters which makes sense, as it was the last one made. I am absolutely positive that that was merely a coincidence. And if it was not, his master manipulation against the King K. Rool fan-base is the very definition of subtle.
Secondly, I believe he quite literally stated that this poll was indicative of his fan-base and encouraged others to use the same characters to see the differences.
Thirdly, his audience are not the only ones voting on the poll. I am not a member of his audience, yet I still voted for King K. Rool. If we cannot place first on a widely recognized poll, it is not because his fan-base is biased in favor of Shovel Knight, it is because King K. Rool does not have nearly as much support as we thought. There is NO way he should be behind a character of the caliber of Shovel Knight. So I do admit that bias is probably the reason, but likewise, King K. Rool can still top his poll in the end. His dedicated audience members are voting today, but passive votes are sure to collect over the course of the next few days as well.
Lastly, his poll is irrelevant and means nothing.