From the hall of fame's rules on voting:
"Voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played."
The rules give no instructions on how these are to be weighted, but historically, integrity, sportsmanship, and character have been given almost no weight by the voters. The only notable exception has been the exclusion of steroid users. Excluding Hodges has been (and will be, if he doesn't get voted in) entirely consistent with the standards that are implicit in the hall's history of voting.
The way the ballot is structured also makes electing anyone hard. You're allowed to vote for a max of four, but the ballots usually have a bunch of guys who are all approximately equally qualified, and with a 75% threshold for election, that's an invitation to split the vote and not elect anyone. When one of the era committees does elect someone, it often seems that they had some particular rooting section in the electorate, who can rally votes in their favor, as reportedly happened with LaRussa and Reisendorf in getting Baines elected.
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