In a way you're right: I got tons of nominations and don't think I gave a single merit.
You fully deserved all those nominations, because you are one of the few people in this forum I can talk about everything, even if we don't always agree on everything.
Plus you have been very active and all that without paid signature campaign, that is something not easy to understand by most people.
On the other hand, psychologically it makes sense that one might get more votes if he merits posts that vote for him - esp. from voters who seem desperate for merits like bounty grabbers, spammers etc., people who have difficulty getting merits (e.g. some have earned 50 merits in 6 years of being on the forum).
I was openly against sending merits to voters after last year when one unnamed bounty manager was doing the same thing.
That is why I don't understand why anyone would repeat the same mistake again, with all due respect :/