[queentess]

A link to this was posted a while back, and I remember looking up the stats then. Here they are again:

The readers’ poll for the best novels published in the English language since 1900 opened on July 20, 1998 and closed on October 20, 1998, with 217,520 votes cast.

In other words, a very old poll (in internet age) with a very small base of votes. And given the bias towards a couple authors, not a very diverse group of voters.