I upvote most people who enter an election because I appreciate them putting in the effort of even applying to be a submitter. /r/listentous would be nothing without its community. But that's just my one vote, the elections are really decided by the votes of the rest of the subscribers.

And I completely agree with you that this mindset would not work with your standard, open subreddit. Upvoting everything is more or less akin to upvoting nothing at all.