Forgive me because I'm still unclear on how things work on SE, and this is a point that I may just be confused about. But it seems that when a question or answer gets an upvote on Politics.SE, I get a little green "+10" badge (that makes me feel good about myself.) But when a question or answer on another board gets an upvote, I only get a "+5" (which makes me feel good about myself but slightly less so.)
Is the +10 per upvote a thing specific to Politics.SE or is some other mechanic at work?