I like to stay away from drama and not get myself involved in such contests. I didn't vote last year. I forgot, but maybe I wouldn't have even if I didn't forget. This year I voted because I got tagged by icopress, so I put that on my to-do list. Had I known we would be having this conversation, I would have stayed clear. I stand by what I said previously. If I think that member X is the best in that particular category, I would vote for that user. Him or her meriting people wouldn't change that. The contributions to the forum don't change with those merits. For example, If I knew that you had the same or better results as the user who merited my post, I would put your name instead.
I don't think many users are accusing others of voting solely based on the fact that they might get merit. Although, I think it has been made quite clear that some are looking to earn merit that way. I'm definitely not questioning the integrity of the user they've voted for, I don't think that's the issue here as a lot of them are actually pretty respectable users, and probably do deserve to get voted in.
I don't think there needs to be any action taken against anyone voting or anyone meriting for votes, I don't think that's something that even needs any in depth discussion, I just think in order for the event not to be ruined, and made as fair as possible, possibly the admins could limit merit in the thread in future events. I'm not sure that they would do that, I just see that as a solution. By no means if the competition or event official, but I do think it could actually prove beneficial to the forum in the long run. If it becomes a regular event, and is sponsored every year by someone then that could be the motivation for some users to improve on the forum, and personally regardless of the motive I'm in support of that.