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A question with several answers, including one by me, was closed, and shortly afterwards it was deleted.

I can see what appears to be an active "reopen" button on the question itself. There is an active "undelete" button on my answer, but when I press it, I am told (logically enough) that I cannot undelete an answer to a deleted question.

I don't wish to take a position on whether the question should have been closed; it did indeed lack context, research effort, etc.; but deletion of the question and all its answers seems excessive to me.

Even if I'm wrong about that (I have very little feeling for "hot button" political issues in MSE - or indeed anywhere else! - and I know there is a long and sometimes bitter history behind this kind of issue in particular), I would like to cast a vote. But am I actually able to do that, and if so, how?

I can't find an answer here (sorry if I missed something): How does deleting work? What can cause a post to be deleted, and what does that actually mean? What are the criteria for deletion?

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For the users that can vote to un/delete the question (that is, those with 10k+ points, essentially) there is a button "undelete" under the question, just like you see it under your answer. If enough user vote to undelete that would undelete the question, yet would not automatically reopen it.

The reason that you cannot vote to undelete the question is that you do not yet have the relevant "privilege" (you'll get it at 10k points.) Only for you own post you have that ability. This should be explained in the thread you link to.

It is somewhat counterintuitive that it seems you still could vote to reopen it. This is a bit of a cornercase: normally you could not see deleted questions, thus the issue does not arise, but since you have an answer there, you can see it in this case. Note though that voting to reopen would not help to undelete it.

What you can do is post a request in the dedicated thread Requests for Reopen & Undeletion Votes (volume 07/2018 - today)

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you. I did wonder whether it was because of not having enough privileges, but my eyes must have glazed over at the crucial point of the thread I referred to. You're right, of course: it's explained under What does deletion mean for a post?, thus: "10k users" may vote to undelete deleted questions: it usually takes three votes to undelete a question, but sometimes more. $\endgroup$
    – Calum Gilhooley
    Commented Mar 2, 2019 at 23:06

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