Votes

Votes are decisions made by users used to decide the winner on debates. Voting on debates is done during the voting period, after the two debaters have finished debating.
== Voting Privileges ==
Voting privileges can only be granted for users who have already completed at least 3 debates. Voting permissions can be acquired by using a cellphone number to ensure that the user is a legitimate account, or one can acquire voting privileges by sending a private message requesting it to the website's administrator, Airmax1227.http://www.debate.org/forums/debate.org/topic/31044/http://www.debate.org/forums/debate.org/topic/56116/Manually requesting for voting privileges is recommended by the website if one's cell phone carrier is not recognized by the account verification system.
== Voting Process ==
During the voting period, the community is allowed to judge the debate for a period of time set by the instigator. http://www.debate.org/help/faq/ By default, voters are requested to vote on 6 fields, 4 of which have an effect on the debate. The ones which affect the debate are bolded.
Name 	Amount of points given per vote
Who did you agree with before the debate?	0
Who did you agree with after the debate? 	0
Who had better conduct? 	1
Who had better spelling and grammar? 	1
Who made more convincing arguments? 	3
Who used the most reliable sources? 	
2
http://www.debate.org/help/articles/how-to-vote/
Alternatively, the instigator of the debate can change the voting format to a simple "yes" or "no". The instigator can also only allow voting by a few selected judges.
In addition, voters may be required to insert a reason for decision in a textbox, if an option to require it was enabled by the instigator.
== Abuse ==
=== Vote Bombing ===
Vote bombing is unfair or unexplained voting. While users used to "counter" unfair votes by voting in favor of the opposing member, a new feature that allows users to report votes has rendered it obsolete.
=== Alleged Instances of Vote Bombing ===
Debate.org user FrizzStammberger has accused the website's voters of having a pro-atheist slant. According to the user, the majority of the users on the website were atheists,http://www.debate.org/debates/There-are-more-atheists-than-theists-on-debate.org/1/ and they were "hostile to Christianity". http://www.debate.org/debates/Debate.org-is-crawling-with-atheists-hostile-to-christianity/1/
The atheist user Qopel accused vote bombers who unfairly vote as being responsible for some of his lost debates. He further accuses a list of users of being vote bombers. http://www.debate.org/forums/Debate.org/topic/24052#1131095
And even with standards you can still get away with it because Whiteflame doesn't give a fuck.
== References ==
Category:Debate.org