The motive behind it is a mixture of of shitposters looking for a cheap Merit and in our case some members (like Bob) abusing the greed / need of shitposters for Merit. Then, members like Ted join because he notices how Bob is getting more votes. 
Loooooooool!
My dear 1miau, you exposed things in the most rigorous and academic way possible! Chapeau to that!
Maybe I'm getting a Ph.D. in exposing abusers.
= everyone who wants to obtain a Merit will start to nominate Bob and Ted, therefore Bob and Ted are "indirectly bribing" voters and possibly, more members will act like Bob and Ted.
Bribing is, ultimately, reduced in a large scale. 
Jokes aside, Bitcointalk's Community awards will be a very fair event and we should be able to detect any sort of abuse because rules are massively improved compared to the last time and since we had already several Bitcointalk Community Awards, multiple offenders like Alt Accounts only used for Bitcointalk Community Awards voting could be spotted easily if Merit requirements aren't enough.