I think mintpal's paid votes system is nothing short of a scam.
No point in actual voting if 1 BTC buys you 20,0000 votes.

Having said that, both sides are wrong, you guys and UTC's could have just come to an Agreement and saved a helluva lot of money instead of filling Mintpal's owners' pockets..

For instance, you could have let UTC win (since their main exchange, Crypto-Trade, was hacked and is gonna be offline for a long time), at the condition UTCers would help you with votes in the next few days.

With both teams voting, it would have been a sure thing.