Charged in to vote for hoax, essentially (8)
I believe the answer is:
electric
'charged' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'to vote for hoax essentially' is the wordplay.
'to vote for' becomes 'elect' (vote for in an election).
'hoax essentially' becomes 'ric' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'elect'+'ric'='ELECTRIC'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for electric that I've seen before include "startling effect" , "Highly charged" , "Causing suddent excitement - from generator?" , "Relating to a form of energy 98)" , "describing power supplies?" .)