Should we be allowed to change our vote on an answer, if we ultimately go back and mark it as "the" answer?

Question

I recently posted a question, and was given an answer almost immediately. Initially the answer didn't seem to solve my problem, and I couldn't get much clarification on the answer, so I gave it a down vote. Not that it wasn't the answer I needed, but that I couldn't get the details from the answer that I needed at the time.

Fast forward 5-10 minutes later, and after doing more observation it was apparent that the answer, though not very descriptive, was in fact the correct answer.

Now, since it's been more than x-minutes, while I can go back and mark the answer as Correct, I can't actually change my down vote to an up vote; my prior vote is locked in.

Should we allow users to change their vote on answers they mark as correct?

Answer 1

I'm not convinced that it'd be a useful change. I would encourage you to be careful with your voting. You might get lucky with other answers or answerers, as they might edit their question in response to comments or voting; but if they don't, your vote is locked in, as you saw.

My best suggestion would be to leave a comment on the Answer saying that you mistakenly down-voted the answer and would like to reverse your vote, but that requires an edit to the question. You could suggest an edit that would improve your understanding of the answer, if there is one. If the answerer declines, or the suggested edit is not approved, then you are simply stuck with the down-vote.

Answer 2

I’d agree with Jeff’s answer about being cautious when voting and I imagine that’s the intention of this Stack Exchange feature (locking in votes unless a question is edited).

When I first started using Stack Exchange sites, I had a similar problem: I’d upvote an answer that looked like it was correct but after implementing the suggestions/code and realising that it did not solve the problem, it would be too late to change my vote. This can be particularly annoying if there are correct/useful answers with the same amount of (or less) upvotes. In such situations, I’d normally leave a comment to help future users – and to encourage the poster to edit their answer to improve it.

Your question is a good one (so upvoted) and I can see how you wouldn’t have found Ignacio’s answer to be particularly useful. Personally, I reserve downvotes for answers that are positively unhelpful, misleading or factually inaccurate. If an answer lacks enough detail to be useful, I tend to leave it be (neither upvote nor downvote).