There is undoubtedly something going on with news sources on Voat. Some of it naturally comes from the userbase. There was a rise in the amount of Breitbart and other right wing sources being posted when various hate subs were banned on Reddit, but some sites seemed to appear very quickly, not even in correlation with influxes. Thegatewaypundit is one I can think of off the top of my head.
I made a post about the sources being posted well over a year ago, before the election mania fully kicked off, noting that the Daily Mail and Breitbart were not reliable news sources. It is still one of my most highly upvoted posts. I reposted the same thing again a few months ago and it was downvoted to oblivion.
This, along with the fact that I have actually seen Voat accounts for sale, makes me think that there is definitely a group pushing certain sources on Voat.
I'm certain there are organised groups posting to various subs on voat (news, politics, unitedkingdom). There are clusters of accounts which seem obviously connected and seem to push a political message. There is one fairly prominent group that appears to be right wing Irish prodestants as well as the usual Trump shills.
I really wouldn't be surprised. I could name a dozen Voat accounts just off the top of my head that participated in this sort of activity last year.