I wasn't worried about the voting. The potential conflict is between Blotch and the Ursa panel, all of whom no doubt knew long before the announcement. There's the risk someone would try improve Blotch's chances as payment for the art or that Blotch would not do their best if they didn't win or something like that. I'm not saying anything like that happened, I really doubt it did and I do think Blotch deserved the win but I'm just saying I'm not sure it's a good idea for a group awarding prizes to then be commissioning someone who's eligible for one. That's where problems can crop up.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
I wasn't worried about the voting. The potential conflict is between Blotch and the Ursa panel, all of whom no doubt knew long before the announcement. There's the risk someone would try improve Blotch's chances as payment for the art or that Blotch would not do their best if they didn't win or something like that. I'm not saying anything like that happened, I really doubt it did and I do think Blotch deserved the win but I'm just saying I'm not sure it's a good idea for a group awarding prizes to then be commissioning someone who's eligible for one. That's where problems can crop up.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~