That's up to the guild. For example, with Curie, all votes are manual, and vouched by two people.

How many curators does curie have roughly and do these curators vote with their own account which then triggers the whales account?

What do you mean vouched by 2 people?

Currently, Curie has a public submission channel #curie at Steemit.chat. Curators are paid 8 Steem per post.

8 steem per curated post? this number seems a bit off no? 8 steem per post is basically the average curation reward of a whale, so if this is divided among many curators it would be a lot less unless there are very few curators.