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I have found that if I upvote an answer, it gets upvoted, but if I downvote I receive a message that the vote is hidden until I have sufficient reputation points.

Here's an example from an answer on Academia - on which I have 101 reputation points.

If I upvote:

Upvote

It simply gets upvoted - isn't that nice!

The trouble is if I downvote an answer, I get a message saying my vote is hidden until I have 125 reputation points:

Downvote

And here is an example of a question on Network Engineering, on which I have 113 reputation points:

Upvote

Downvote

So either this is a straightforward network-wide bug, or this is a Stack Exchange policy to hide downvotes from users with less than 125 reputation points - in which case perhaps the wording of the message is ambiguous?

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    you think it's a bug because you think you just need x reputation to vote, but in fact the rep needed to upvote and downvote are different – Kate Gregory Jul 1 '16 at 12:35
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No, it is not a bug - you receive the 'vote down' privilege at 125 reputation. In the meantime, the system does record your 'downvotes' (for anonymous feedback, as @NathanTuggy mentions), but once you reach 125 reputation nothing happens to these vote attempts.

The popup text is misleading, that's why people have asked to change it - and this feature request seems to be as of today.

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    Note that the downvote records are stored separately, as anonymous feedback. – Nathan Tuggy Jul 1 '16 at 19:38
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    Shouldn't it be [status-bydesign]? – Nissa Nov 21 '16 at 3:16
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    I don't think this feature is "complete"... often I'll downvote something and later rescind it without upvoting, which appears impossible for users below 125 reputation. Is the sub-125 "anonymous feedback" downvoting effectively a placebo? – Darren Ringer Dec 23 '18 at 21:01

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