Well I think I'm living proof its possible for an independent from a small corp/alliance to win the CSM elections. I was the first chair of the CSM defeating Darius Johnson of Goonswarm and Hardin of the CVA who both had huge alliance blocs behind them simply by running a high profile campaign and doing a lot of hard work on the campaign trail (and having an excellent team behind me).

So it is possible.

But that said, I do think its got harder for independent candidates recently to compete with the alliance blocs and there has been some evidence of "rigging" (4 hour trial accounts etc) I guess "exploiting weaknesses in the voting system" might be closer to the mark since what Goonswarm did last time is the virtual equivilence of lorry driving in homeless people from another state and registering them to vote for a particular candidate in exchange for a bottle of hooch to play havoc with the ordinary voting demographics.

This is pretty easy to fix. Trial accounts don't get a vote.
I'd be inclined to say that there should be a minimum age of character that should vote too. Maybe 1 month. It won't entirely solve election manipulation but it'll help.

But the bigger issue is that 0.0 alliance blocs will always find it easier to pressgang their members into voting than the vast unwashed hoards of highsec. And in a system where minority actually vote you get fringe mentalist candidates dominating the story.

I think CCP need to take a leaf from Australia's voting system and make voting mandatory for every eve player who is on a full account and has existed for one month. During the voting period you get a pop up on the launcher that prompts you to cast a vote. CCP already has the ability to randomize the order of candidates on the voting page - so no alphabetic favouritism and let the candidates stand on their message. (abstain should be an option of course)

In exchange for the inconvenience a six pack of quafe zero arrives in the hanger of the person who just voted.

Everyone wins, democracy triumphs - no more CSM chairs with complete dominance of the council voted by a tiny fraction of the player base.