We've been seeing this a lot; lazy/disgruntled/petty CMDR's willing to spend money for the dubious pleasure of screwing up other peoples game. They buy a raft of alt accounts, pledge them to the opposing powers, and then after a few months, they do a single hauling run and >boom< they have several dozen "votes" that they can use to force undesirable expansions onto a power.
The key to this working for them is the simple fact that it takes >little< effort to get the extra votes. A single Python full of fortifications every other weeks gives you as many votes as a CMDR that hauls 5,000t a week.
The simplest way to deter this is change the vote strength so that after 16 weeks, your vote strength reflects your power rating; if you're Rank2, you get 2 votes. If you want 5 votes, you need to be Rank 5. This at least will require the 5C players to put a bit of effort into their game-sabotage.
The key to this working for them is the simple fact that it takes >little< effort to get the extra votes. A single Python full of fortifications every other weeks gives you as many votes as a CMDR that hauls 5,000t a week.
The simplest way to deter this is change the vote strength so that after 16 weeks, your vote strength reflects your power rating; if you're Rank2, you get 2 votes. If you want 5 votes, you need to be Rank 5. This at least will require the 5C players to put a bit of effort into their game-sabotage.