You have saying even with 1 rep. You have no say only if you are on a post ban. On the Meta SE, as I've heard, this post ban happens only in really exceptional cases. Its reason is the freedom of expression.

Meta SE was once the meta.stackoverflow.com. Until some years ago, the meta SO was both the meta of the stackoverflow and of the whole SE network. Later they were divided.

On the site metas, votes still exist, but they don't affect the reputation. Its obvious reason is that not your meta popularity matters, instead your contributions to the main site. The SE doesn't want complaints and flamewars, they want a lot of visitors producing good content (to attract more visitors).

The meta SE, this site, is different. It doesn't belong to a main site, it is essentially the meta of the whole SE network. It doesn't have mod elections, rather the CMs are its mods. It is essentially a "chief justice department", thus if you want to contribute here, you have some high reason for that. Thus, here, despite that it is a meta, we have rep what we can lose with an unpopular post.