There's a community of people who know TAFF and know the eligible candidates and their work. It's the recruitment of votes from people who know nothing of TAFF, nothing of the candidates other than the one who recruits them, and who are only questionably qualified to vote at all (TAFF requires voters to be already active in fandom, though it's doubtful whether this is enforced) that bothers him.

This seems to say that only people who are already aware of TAFF should be eligible to vote. While I agree with the latter point that they should be active in fandom, I disagree with the notion that only people who have heard of TAFF previously and know all the candidates should vote. TAFF is a fannish fund and anyone who is active in fandom should be eligible, nay, encouraged to learn more about it and vote, even if they are voting because someone who is standing for the fund told them about it. After all, one of the jobs of administrators/candidates is to promote the fund. How better to do that than to get fannish friends who aren't aware of it previously to know about it!

I too am put off by people who potentially might accost strangers at a convention to do nothing more than hand over a few dollars and fill out a ballot. At the same time, when I stood for DUFF, many of my fannish friends voted in a fan fund election for the first time because I was running. They'd heard of the funds before but hadn't been motivated enough to take part previously. I think that's a different story, but perhaps that's because I was the candidate in question :->