What? That isn't how polling works. While some may vote on an amorphous future "potential", polls also measure recent history. It's why recency bias is a known variable in statistics. You would think that recent events would influence polls more than some sort of "potential", especially when recent events have been the hottest the game has ever produced. Just look at the Apostles, they've SPIKED in popularity immediately following the most recent update despite my personal feelings on their scene. You mean to tell me that their sudden popularity is strictly based on "future potential"? Meanwhile, Cathy has such low potential that she only earns 30 votes? Do we really think that the thugs have just as much potential for future scenes as the old men? I get that everyone has kinks, but even accounting for that these numbers are weird. If you're L&P you don't want major characters being out-voted by characters that have no significance to the future of the game.
I'm mostly joking in my original post, but truly the polling is poorly constructed. I don't mean that as another criticism of L&P, I just don't think much thought was put into this. There are too many choices, with too little guidance, to really draw much from it. In truth, the poll really only tells us that this is the Dylan and Ellie show, and that there should be cameo appearances from Patricia, Aiden, Alyssa, Sam, and Ava/kids. If we really wanted to get a better sense of popularity, future polls should drop those 7 characters, and restructure to elicit responses that are more targeted. If the old men from Side Job 1 really can't garner more votes than Janitor Clark then that could be useful information, but on a poll this expansive it's hard to really know if people are putting that much thought into it.