At the time I posted the 51 resteems, I was looking only at the number of resteems and not as to whether they met all other criteria. This was a premature announcement indeed.
My goal is to make this a fair as possible and minimize manipulation potential, which is huge due to people having access to multiple accounts. I am in the progress of running a query directly (thank you @carlgnash for the head start on this.)
Also, I expect to release the final random formula on the 6th day of the contest.
Thank you everyone for the great help on this.