It's been in since the beginning and people enjoy it. It also provides marketing for the contest as a whole. We've thought about getting rid of it, but people like voting for their favorites.
And again, I did not say there is no way to check, I said there is no FOOLPROOF way to check. Any voting system will be able to be cheated without some form of voter registration tied to some kind of real life government documentation, the best way to catch people though is not to discuss how you can catch them.