Why in the world would I, or anyone else, try to sway the vote? Come on. This is clearly a way to gauge the interest of IHN members. If no one would support the merge, then CCS would be wasting their time and effort. No one is logging in to sway the vote. So far it's a "no" so I'm not sure what the complaint is.
There is no conspiracy here. I'm doing exactly what I said I would do. The vote is kept anonymous so that people don't have to worry about being pressured to one side. If people want to come out and say which way they voted, that's fine, but I think it's a personal choice here that should only be made public if that member wants it to be public.
That said... guests cannot vote. Only members. In the last month only 5 new people have registered, I highly doubt that affects anything.
Lastly, the vote is open until November 1st so that we can get as many people involved as possible. Some people don't log in every day, some don't check out NHTA, so time is good to get an accurate picture of what the community wants.