User blog comment:EmpyrealInvective/Main Page Stories and You/@comment-25307213-20160215055303

This is similar to the system in place at MashStories.com. People submit their stories (adhering to competition requirements). A pool of judges read the stories and those with the requisite approvals from judges are put on a public shortlist. The public (including friends, family, and strangers, alike) can be "voted" on via a Kudos ("Like", "thumbs up") system. However, the winner is not determined through public democracy. The judges take vote numbers into account (at least they profess to do so), but the decision is ultimately theirs to make by whatever criteria they deem necessary.

You could always leave the public polls open for the same effect, as long as it's made clear the final decision is in the hands of the judges. That way, if people want to farm votes in whatever manner they wish, it guarantees absolutely nothing. And may even cause their story to be less likely to win for suspicion of tampering.