We've been discussing about changing the voting system and make it as follows:
- Everybody can give a limited amount of phuks ("votes")
- Each user gets sqrt(LEVEL) "votes" per hour
- A user can have up to LEVEL+10 "votes"
- Nobody can downvote until X condition is met and a certain badge is given
- A downvote would cost the same as two upvotes
An example: I'm level 15, so I get 3 votes per hour and I can have up to 25 votes at any time. It takes 9 hours to get 25 votes at 3/hr, so if in those 9 hours I spend my 25 votes, I can still get more for the rest of the day (at 3/hr, up to 72 per day, being level 15).
I'd be surprised if that ever became a problem. As long as the new account can't downvote, and only has a few upvotes, I doubt there'd be much damage done. And if they really need to give that extra upvote, let them.
I agree that IP restrictions are a bad idea. I understand why Voat did it. It is effective. But it also screws legit users. I often couldn't vote on things when I was at work because there is a couple other goats there.