LIMITED VOICE: Put an asterisk by this...

LIMITED VOICE: Put an asterisk by this year’s Village Voice pop poll results. More than 300 music critics from around the country submitted ballots to the New York weekly’s annual survey of the year’s top records and videos. But only 255 of them of were counted in the results contained in the current issue of the Voice. The reason: The rest of the ballots--mostly from West Coast critics--got stuck in the mail and missed the deadline, says poll co-supervisor Robert Christgau.

Christgau says the uncounted votes wouldn’t have knocked Arrested Development’s debut album out of the No. 1 spot, but it would have made changes in the rest of the Top 5--notably Los Lobos’ “Kiko,” which would have moved from sixth to third. The five leaders in the abbreviated count: Arrested Development, Pavement, R.E.M., PJ Harvey and the Beastie Boys. The five leaders if all votes were counted: Arrested Development, R.E.M., Los Lobos, Pavement and PJ Harvey.

Why not simply extend the deadline and count all the votes--since they were in weeks before the results were published? “What is a deadline for, if not to keep to?” snapped Christgau.