A humble suggestion, of little effort but good response, to get beneficial effect on vote participation is that you encourage people to post "Voted" once they voted, and all act as good example doing so themselves.
Why? Domino effects.
Because if you do then all your friends will have a chance to see that you voted somewhere, that in many cases create interest in what you're up to and where. For sure I almost never visit this part of the forum, but if I see Finlander posted I would at least get curious to what he's up to.
Those people, such as me, will drop by and perhaps vote too. And if they hang on the trend, then they post "Voted" so all their friends will have a chance to see that they voted somewhere, and so it goes on.
People are pack animals, to be blunt, who will go to look if a crowd is standing looking at something, hehe. One of the greatest ways to create interest is to show that there is interest already, and that can only you guys.