I hate wasting votes on it too, but would rather use them to return to the reward pool what otherwise would have been stolen. Have used steemcleaners a few times too and their turn around time is kind of slow sometimes. Then again I'm sure it's because so many thieves are trying to get a foothold here on steemit that they are bombarded with reports of plagiarized content each day.

Not sure if you know the account @newbiegames but it might be worth joining their discord to help promote your contest. Some good content producers in that room who are looking for contests to join. Just a thought.