Valery Hache / AFP / Getty Images Protesters wearing Anonymous Guy Fawkes masks take part in a demonstration in Nice, southeastern France, in February 2012.

The annual TIME 100 poll is an opportunity for readers to vote on the year’s most influential figures across all fields, from politics to tech to pop culture. While TIME’s editors ultimately decide who is on the final list, the candidate who emerges as the fan favorite in the Web poll is included in the magazine when the 100 are revealed.

(MORE: Full TIME 100 Poll Results)

This time around, the weeklong poll became a popularity contest between two Internet behemoths. In the beginning, it seemed to be a runaway win for Erik Martin, the general manager of the online sharing community Reddit. And then Anonymous, the loosely knit network of like-minded Internet activists, surged to take the top spot just before deadline.

When the poll closed at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 6, Anonymous had racked up more than 395,000 yes votes, up from just 40,000 a day earlier, leapfrogging not only Martin (who ended up with more than 264,000 yeses) but also Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of India’s Gujarat state, who finished in third place. Modi supporters had shown some muscle during the polling: they cast nearly 257,000 yes votes for their favorite. The controversial politician, however, had high negatives: he received almost 267,000 thumbs-down votes.

MORE: The TIME 100 Nominees

MORE: Narendra Modi and the TIME 100: Even an Online Poll Sparks Controversy