As far as polls are concerned, I think even Stratics would agree with this. Too easy for folks to create multiple Stratics accounts to falsify poll outcomes.
On Stratics? Yes. However if they did it in the patcher, required a valid UO login, etc. then it should be valid.
The pet dye poll they did went through a 3rd party 'free' poll website that didn't require a unique identifier, and was thusly complete B.S.
My 'reliance on Stratics' comment didn't have to do with polls, but with Mythic's choice to make this site their sole news and communication with the Dev Team outlet. They should be using the UO Herald for communication, or forward things to all the fan sites (which I can gurantee has NOT been done since the Beta Key contests).