So we'd have to set up the null hypothesis that the voting patterns are simply random. What probability distribution are we going to use? Gaussian distributio

So we'd have to set up the null hypothesis that the voting patterns are simply random. What probability distribution are we going to use? Gaussian distribution is probably the wrong one to use, since online voting and online popularity usually conforms better to a power law distribution. So bootstrap a distribution from the data, and then test for correlations? How do we control for the deliberately random behavior of the voting circle sockpuppets?