by definition a delete vote means there is no accurate and useful content so if merge and redirect means only merging the good content then a delete vote certainly should not count as being close to a delete vote fifth grade is also not a good example for this discussion if i had just considered the votes i would have redirected the article however by the time the vfd vote had ended that article had greatly increased in size and accuracy making the early votes suspect votes in the period after the improvement saw no consensus to redirect oct utc