I am a little puzzled over this subject.
Why does the number of items in the "close votes review queue" is always increasing?
Compared to "suggested edits" - there are fewer items in the close votes queue (less than a 1M all-time close items vs. over 2M all-time items in the suggested edits).
So why can't we handle the closed votes reviews?
My observation:
While reviewing a suggested edit does not require specific understanding of the post itself (a good assesment can be made based on style and formating), this is not the case for close votes: these reviews require an understanding of the post's subject.
My proposal:
It would be nice if when I go to review closed votes the system will automatically filter the posts for me based on my active tags. This way I will be more efficient in reviewing and more encouraged to review more.
EDIT:
An after thought (after reading proposed answer and comments): It might be that filtering is not exactly what is required, but rather prioritizing the queue per reiviewer. Each reiviewer will be given posts to review that are "similar" to his active badges with higher probability.
Update:
Following gnat's answer in programmers stackexchange, I believe it is highly important to have no backlog at the close votes reviews: This backlog actually makes closing questions on SO quite a random event, leaving many low-quality questions open spamming SO.
Is there an effective way to draw the attention of SE team/moderators to this burning issue?