Any way to allow voting on closed threads?

[Outlaw Mantis]

So here's the deal: I have a Member of the Month forum, but during the voting process I don't want voters to be able to reply to the thread, as this could allow them to discuss the candidates and I want to remove any bias, just an honest vote. (I have votes hidden until MotM voting ends to help this.) They will be able to reply when the voting ends and the winner is chosen, however.

Unfortunately, since I have to close the thread to disallow members to reply, this also disables the ability for them to vote. Any way past this? I searched for mods, but the only one I found is for vB3 and extremely old.