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I apologize in advance for bringing this issue to the notice of the community. However, I found this instance of downvoting to be quite irregular, and I wanted to "flag" it, by bringing out the issue here.

So, here's the problem. I answered this question, and this was certainly a "correct" answer. However, an user downvoted the answer, and later admitted in comments in the same thread that he downvoted the answer, as he wanted his reputation to be divisible by 2. Now, I don't think that's the right way to implement one's right of voting, and hence I wanted to bring the issue in front of the community.

( I certainly appreciate the honesty of the user, and I don't care too much about my own reputation, except that I am morally against the wrong use of voting. )

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    $\begingroup$ Why didn't you just flag the question? $\endgroup$
    – Alex Becker
    May 2, 2014 at 23:39
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    $\begingroup$ @AlexBecker: Is that the correct step? I am sorry- I didn't know about it. Should I delete this question of mine? $\endgroup$
    – voldemort
    May 2, 2014 at 23:40
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    $\begingroup$ @voldemort: flagging is the proper action. However, I will note that almost everyone who posts is the victim of senseless downvotes (I've gotten quite a few). If the downvoter has a valid reason, hopefully, they will comment so that you can improve your post; if not, the best you can do is ask for a comment, but don't hold your breath for a reply. $\endgroup$
    – robjohn Mod
    May 3, 2014 at 0:14
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    $\begingroup$ @robjohn: In this case the downvoter left a comment saying that he wanted an even rep, and so downvoted it. I thought it was irregular, and hence brought up the issue. Thanks for your comment though. $\endgroup$
    – voldemort
    May 3, 2014 at 0:16
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    $\begingroup$ @voldemort: My suggestion regarding downvotes was general, not specific to this case. We can't control the reasons that people have for voting, but we can discourage targeted (usually vengeful) downvoting. This does not seem to be the case here (the reason given does not indicate that you were targeted in particular). $\endgroup$
    – robjohn Mod
    May 3, 2014 at 0:30

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Users downvote for a variety of reasons; some of them are legitimate, some of them aren't. Being downvoted senselessly is inevitable, and usually the user won't post a comment explicitly stating why they downvoted. So most of the time, you just have to deal with it and hope it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

In cases like this where you do know who it was, flag the question/comment/answer for moderator attention. (See comments.)

Keep in mind that unfair downvotes may not even hurt your reputation much. For one thing, users who see the unfair downvote will likely upvote to counteract. And for another thing, downvoting to a more significant degree should hopefully be automatically reversed.

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    $\begingroup$ Also, as a general principle, it's good to keep in mind that the reason for a "senseless" downvote may have been explained in a comment on a previous answer. $\endgroup$
    – Carl Mummert
    May 3, 2014 at 21:49

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