I think the large No Preference vote may have actually been Other; with STV (the way votes are counted), there's no harm in putting your joke first followed by your preference among the real bids. (There could be if so many people did that that a real bid was eliminated, but that's unlikely and has never come close to happening in Site Selection.)

How many of the 53 had Montreal or KC listed, just not first? Those aren't No Preference.