Not very many players knew of the poll during the first round so a lot of the total vote counts were low. And according to code the votes on smite's side on the final poll was due to bots. I don't think any poll had a many legit votes as mabinogi and warframe's poll did.
Imagine if Warframe was unable to rally in those final 3 minutes in their matchup against Vindictus... as bad as the communities were getting, I couldn't imagine what Nexon would of done if it ended up Mabinogi vs. Vindictus.
Also, Aura Kingdom had more votes than Mabinogi did in the first round, but alas, their first round opponent was SMITE...