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Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Fan Vote Snub Has People Wondering How Important Their Vote Really Is (Again)

New Edition won the fan vote by a landslide, but didn’t make it into the Rock Hall. What gives?

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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its class of 2026 inductees on April 13. Oasis, Billy Idol, Luther Vandross, Wu-Tang Clan, and many others made the cut. However, fans of New Edition were left disappointed. Despite earning more than one million votes on the fan ballot, the Boston R&B group didn’t make it into the Rock Hall this year.

That may seem like the fan vote doesn’t count at all, but that isn’t exactly the case. Most of the time, artists who dominate the fan vote end up on the list. But sometimes, they don’t. This year, it happened to New Edition. In 2025, it happened to Phish.

Dave Matthews Band won the fan vote in 2020, but were still left off the Rock Hall ballot

Truth is, every fan vote is calculated as one single ballot in the larger pool of Rock Hall voters. The idea of one million votes counting for less than 1% of the voting body may seem absurd or even broken beyond comprehension. But the fan........

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