Fyrd, for rookie, you suggest doing proper voting for Jan - June, and again in December? Or for people to think about when the players have made their mark in the December voting? And have two awards then for it?
My opinion is against either, 1st for the extra work it would involve, and 2nd because people will find it difficult to distinguish when people have done things (this has happened before when someone was nominated for a quest they'd made the year before).
I'm very open to thoughts about altering the Rookie in some way though to make it more inclusive.
If there were to be a preliminary round of voting to reduce the number of nominees for the actual vote, this would be done on the forum, rather than in game (so that it's very clear it's not the actual vote). The votes through the forum would have to be checked by a forum admin (probably Chewett) to ensure people aren't alt voting.
As Chewett has pointed out, the restriction on nominating is to reduce the effect of land bias. The alternative I may offer to counter the land bias is to restrict it on the voting itself, this however has other difficulties a few of which were raised in regards to restriction of the nominating; How can you be sure of a players land allegiance? As an example Azull has recently been a member of a Golemus alliance, but I'm sure would consider himself Necrovion - meaning they'd have to be manual checks, which delays counting of votes, and are also prone to be wrong.
The above post is only my opinion on the matter, as always, if more people agree with the suggestion, than disagree, it will be accepted and used. I welcome healthy debate on the subject but will note whatever the conclusion from the debate here I will raise it when discussing categories for he 2012 awards.