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In the FAQ there is a line stating that it moderators who "nearly won" elections can be added:

In some cases, election runner-ups may later be called in to meet additional demand.

Also, there were multiple precedents of "calling up" on Stack Overflow (search for line "called up after the election to meet additional demand). Also, on Portuguese Stack Overflow 4 candidates were elected despite 3 slots. Maybe there were other cases, but I don't know them.

It's not clear for me

  • Who has permission to "call up"?
  • What is the procedure of "calling up"?
  • If most of the moderators think that they can "call up" somebody, who should they contact to do it?
  • Can a "call up" be initiated via post with a large number of upvotes on the local meta site?

Update

If it's CM decision then

  • Can little margin in votes between last winner and runner-up be a reason to do so?
  • Can personal sympathy for a candidate(s) be a reason to do so?
  • Can CM pick not the most voted candidates?
  • Can CM ignore moderators' opinions?
  • Other guidelines when CM should/shouldn't do it?

(These questions about CM motivation are added because the community manager asked me about it.)

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  • I think the most important questions that are not on your list are "When we should and should not do that?" and "What can / cannot be a reason for that?". Could you please add them?
    – Nicolas Chabanovsky StaffMod
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 9:50
  • 2
    If one offers an idea to add an additional moderator after they have looked at the results without any reason (or because only one reason that they want to see somebody particular who they like to be a moderator), it cannot be a substantiated request despite of the number of votes on the offer.
    – Nicolas Chabanovsky StaffMod
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 9:54
  • @NicolasChabanovsky I think these questions you've mentioned are already implied in my post. From Glorfindel answer, I assume the short answer is "when CM finds it reasonable" and no other options are possible.
    – Vadim Ovchinnikov
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 9:56
  • I think those questions are very important, the most important here. We either clearly state them in the text or we will never get the answer that we are looking for.
    – Nicolas Chabanovsky StaffMod
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 10:04

1 Answer 1

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Who has permission to "call up"?

The Community Managers. ♦ moderators might be involved in the decision, just like when it comes to regular elections (which they can request); CMs will ask about their perceived workload, and if the general feeling is that there is too much work to do for too few moderators, additional moderators will be added, either via an election or by "calling up" others. CMs have the final say in this.

Can a "call up" be initiated via post with a large number of upvotes on the local meta site?

No, regular users can't ask for this procedure to be started via a Meta post; they can't request a new election either.

What is the procedure of "calling up"?

The CMs generally do this to avoid having multiple elections on the same site within a short period; if the last election was long enough ago, they'll just hold a new election. I assume this will be done as well if the runner up didn't have much support (e.g. if they ended up as the only non-elected candidate). There's some communication with the runner-up upfront, to see if they still want to be a moderator or if they changed their mind.

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  • Regarding timescales - from discussions with CMs - election results are generally considered "current/valid" for 6 months.
    – Jon Clements
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 10:05
  • Added update with additional about CM?
    – Vadim Ovchinnikov
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 10:36
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    I can't answer those questions, I'm not a CM. And they run the network as they see fit (and doing a good job at that as far as I'm concerned); I'm not sure they want to elaborate about their motivations.
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 10:38
  • Addendum: Android.SE had a consecutive election within 2 months because they couldn't pull up the only un-elected candidate.
    – Meta Andrew T.
    Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 3:11

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