I'm not very familiar with reddit, but this bit strikes me as odd. Why is it a problem to have a large number of upvotes from people coming in just to see the thread?
From my outside perspective, this seems completely bonkers. Unless those people are making extra accounts or something to ballot stuff. It's like you guys are saying "ok, vote, but you can't tell your friends and let them vote. You can't have your community vote. You can't all vote at once or too fast. Only random passerbys that are uninvolved." It isn't as though Twitch staff and those supporting it couldn't come in and down vote it.
The whole idea of an arbitrary no 'vote cheating' policy reminds me of so-called scrubs in fighting games. "No grabs. No fireballs. No timer. No jump ins. No supers. Actually, just don't hit me."
I'm coming off as more critical than I really want to I guess... but I really don't understand how a policy on 'vote cheating' can apply to sharing the link. Was there actual cheating involved and I'm just missing the point?
The reason is simple: 4chan.