imo it's more than likely some of the top listed character are already planned as dlc or are denied. Reasons for denying admittance to Sm4sh could be the character would be too much of a clone of a current character or the character does not directly represent a franchise as either a main character or supporting character.
If anything Nintendo is (1) getting free publicity, (2) viewing consumer response to weigh the strengths of each franchise (3) regardless of the superior votes for a character will choose their own after weighing their thoughts about each character. Having more votes will certainly increase probability but it goes without saying, "not every idea is a good idea."
I honestly feel that a 3rd party character is more likely to be selected even if a first party character has superior votes. Furthermore if Namco is still in partnership for the dlc I would anticipate nearly half the dlc characters to be from Namco.
Yes I'll concede that Klonoa is hardly known by anybody thus will not earn many votes but I will not surrender that he has a chance even after being outvoted.
