The mod banning these users is the same mod who made the posts they downvoted. This is mod abuse, turning the downvote button into an auto-self-ban button.
The message is “If you disagree with me, you will be banned”
Monitoring and banning users for using lemmy as intended to signal boost your opinion should be grounds to have all mod privileges removed. This behaviour undermines the integrity of the server and the wider fediverse.
So in the data-model the votes are linked to the User rather than to the entity being voted on?
I supposed it makes sense considering that the user him/herself does get displayed in a prominent way where they voted and how.
I hadn’t considered that side of the data flows :/