I posted this elsewhere but felt like it was worth discussing.
Cloud MIGHT be the Ballot Winner. Yes the Ballot ended last month but Sakurai must had looked at the poll early and saw Cloud and decided to begin the negotiations to make the game.
How do I know Sakurai looked at results early? Simple. K. Rool and Inkling costumes. In all mock polls K. Rool and Inklings we're in the top 5 characters wanted for Smash. If it was just Inklings you would take this information with a grain of salt, but K. Rool is more out there in terms of costume choice, proving that Sakurai DID take a early sample of the Ballot.
Mewtwo took at least 6 months to finalize his character and moveset for release. I'm sure Sakurai's team did take a small break because the Holidays we're in the middle of this break. So let's just assume it takes 6 months to finalize a DLC character. Let's say Sakurai DID sample the ballot, he could had done so when he looked at K.Rool and Inklings. They release in late July, that's at least 4 months right there, but that's also assuming the costumes we're made in the week but most likely they we're decided and created well before that. So let's just say a month, that's 5 months now. And most noteworthy we didn't see Cloud's 3DS version form, only his Wii U, with no release date. So assuming Cloud releases next month, that's exactly 6 months of development for his release.
So Cloud COULD had been the Ballot winner, or at least Sakurai decided to add him BECAUSE of the Ballot.
I'm sure we will be seeing more characters revealed/added next month. (I'm still assuming we will be getting Wolf with Star Fox, and either another clone or original character like K.Rool, Inklings, or Issac.)