There is one thing I don't understand Alexei.You say - even...

There is one thing I don't understand Alexei.

You say - even better, you can lend or borrow the stock but not its voting power, thereby allowing you to sidestep any mandatory reporting requirements.

Now lets say B borrows 1000 shares from A and short sells them to C.

C now has 1000 shares, he/she doesn't know they have been short sold and therefore has a voting right of 1000 shares.
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If what you say is correct then A also has voting rights to the same 1000 shares.

In the scheme of things this may not influence he voting outcome but it opens the possibility of two big shareholders say A and B to lend
all of there shares to each other. A then short sells all of his borrowed shares to B, via a cross trade, and B does the same. A and B end up with the same number of shares as they originally had, but both have seriously increased their voting rights. This could, for example, change the results of a takeover bid.