In what sense would being able to vote on a question you flagged be double voting?

Question

Currently you are not able to vote on a question you flagged. This is by-design. Anna Lear explains in that link that this is because it would give you two close votes for the question.

I cannot see how that can be. Can someone explain in what sense flagging and then voting would be double voting?

Flagging raises awareness; to my knowledge it does not influence the voting process on the question. In effect it is a polite systematised alternative to posting on Meta or asking for close votes in chat. No one would think that raising a Meta question about whether a question should be closed would give you two votes, so I don't see how flagging could be considered double voting either.

Answer 1

The power of a flag is bringing attention to the post, either moderators or 3k users in review.

It's not a trivial power. 10 wrong flags are a serious waste of time, for example.

So this, in my opinion, is reason enough to limit this power to one usage per post. You get one "Summon Higher Power" ticket.

Now as for voting to close, it's effectively the same as flagging just with the addition of an actual close vote added, 1 out of 5 required to actually close. But it also place the question in the Close Review, where other 3k users will have to review it. If you already used a flag to bring such attention, allowing you to vote would give a second ticket.