Here's an idea: instead of a thread, we have people PM their votes to the Secretary of Forum Affairs or to a seperate account setup for vote submitting? It keeps uneducated "avatar" voters out of the system, editing/re-voting problems, people don't feel pressure to vote for somebody as every vote is private, and the results are accurate (last election every media outlet had different numbers) as the Department of Forum Affairs does the official vote count.
That makes the SoFA the most powerful position in Atlasia.
The SoFA will have some additional duties if some ideas I'm shaping get passed. We'll see...