There is a tool by @drakos that lists who is voting for a specific witness. I thought there used to be a link from the steemd witness page. I’ll find out if it’s still active and link it here if it is.
Voting do not expire, so yes votes from accounts that are no longer active are still counted. Decaying votes is a topic that is discussed frequently, but many have expressed concerns with doing so.
I do know there are many witness forums around discord, but maybe it would be beneficial to do a AMA on chain or possibly an written interview with some to get specific questions answered.
Did you have specific questions in mind?
Why we can't find monthly reports about active steemians choosing the recent witnesses ? It will be good if each witness write about that. Also, if we are voting on those 30 witnesses because we believe they are doing something good, why it's so hard to reach them all. Maybe each witness should talk to those who are voting for him ? Maybe each witness should show his appreciation to those who are voting on him. I'm voting on all those 30 and I've been here for more than 2 years, but the only ones that always open to discussion is @gtg and @timcliff. They allways reply me in steem.chat if I have a particular question.
But the questions I have are formed during those conferences. Now all my questions are answered, but during the shows in MSP Wave, I would like to see most of questions of the audiance answered. If simple minnows can't talk by voice or they are not that confident to talk, they write and I've seen a lot of interesting questions written. I usually read more than listen.
Anyway, I don't want to create any misunderstood and I'm just sharing my opinion, hoping for all the best for steem community !