I advise that one of the changes to specify that all the users voting on any post will be automatically disqualified (in case they will be nominated by someone). In this way, we can avoid all the drama (and / or abuses?) that took course on this contest and, if I remember well, on the previous one as well.
Is it like saying someone standing in for an election shouldn't vote? I really don't understand that point of yours. Nonetheless, I'm suggesting that every comment on the voting thread shouldn't be merited once the thread is opened going forward. No merit should be sent at all, whether to nomination posts or to comments suggested during the voting process. I believe meriting posts tilts the votes. I'm not sure I merited any post that nominated me.
Another suggestion that I am making is to take the contest to Ivory Tower board, thus ensuring that no members with ranks below Full Member are able to interfere. This way we will avoid a good amount of spam. Indeed, this would mean that members with ranks of Newbies, Jr. Member and Member will not be able to vote
That will be another good way to look at it because those within the ranks mentioned may not have been long in the forum to truly understand its activities and to be familiar with some of the usernames to the point of knowing what categories to nominate them for.