Because other Meta sites in the network don't have their own reputation (instead relying on the reputation of their parent sites), there is no reputation penalty for downvoting answers on those sites. This is a good thing: Meta sites invite robust debate and discussion where ideas, in the form of answers, can be voted up and down freely.

However, on MSE, there is a reputation penalty to downvote an answer. This is problematic for two reasons:

1. People likely avoid downvoting answers to avoid losing rep. It certainly crosses my mind when voting, especially when I'm near a milestone.
2. People who use the network but don't actively ask or answer on MSE can't downvote more than 2 answers before they lose the ["vote down" privilege](https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/privileges).

I'd suggest that this be removed for MSE specifically in order to match the system in place on other Meta sites.