bonsaial1 isn't at fault here in any way here with the judging. I have to accept the blame for any inconsistency between what was planned, what was unplanned, and the way the contest actually unfolded.
Al sent me an email the other day, and he wrote (to the best of my recollection),
"It's tied up! I worried about this, what should we do? You (Matt) could pick the winner, or we could ask Andy Rutledge to make a ruling, or have a runoff, but I think people are losing interest in voting"
None of those are his exact words, I don't have his email any longer, but the point is, Al didn't screw this thing up! Any fault is mine alone.
I went back and saw that there was indeed a tie, with only two dozen votes placed, and I had hoped that bumping the deadline out a few more days, and emailing the 1000+ members to request that they actually place votes would resolve it - the 5 finalist round was supposed to be "the runoff" it just didn't work out that way.
Many apologies
Matt