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I've noticed several Stack Exchange election nomination phases follow this pattern:

A graph showing that most nominations happen during the first three days then there are no new nominations until the last day someone can self-nominate (day 7)

On Unix and Linux, we had no activity for 5 days, and then two more nominations suddenly came in within a couple hours of the deadline. The problem with this is commenting is no longer obviously accessible once nominations end; you have to know to go back to the nomination tab, and be bothered enough to do so.

Personally I think comments should be open and visible the entire election, even during voting. The vote buttons should show up when the election phase starts, but the comments shouldn't disappear. If there's some reason not to do that, I think there should be a window where no nominations are accepted, but the voting hasn't started yet, so that everyone can comment on nominations without people slipping in at the last minute before the phase ends.

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  • This also prevents people from waiting until the last minute to prevent comments. (not sure that has ever happened, but it could)
    – ɥʇǝS
    Jun 17, 2014 at 1:15
  • @ɥʇǝS I've seen several cases where I think nominations were posted at the last minute specifically to avoid the feedback cycle everybody else was going through, so this is more than a hypothetical problem ;-)
    – Caleb
    Jul 30, 2014 at 9:54
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    @ɥʇǝS it just happened today in the main stackoverflow elections. Application submitted 53 seconds before the deadline
    – Sam Dean
    Oct 19, 2021 at 9:29

1 Answer 1

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There is another example of this causing issues with an election. There is controversy over statements made in the candidate questionnaire by a candidate who submitted their nomination shortly before nominations were closed.

A good portion of the questionnaire had assertions about the other candidate, and they were given no opportunity to push back on those assertions in the place where most voters were going to be exposed to them. This is not fair or transparent. We absolutely need time after nominations are closed to read the questionnaires and ask followup questions.

By locking the comments, the community isn't able to easily work through these issues and members aren't making informed votes.

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    Would you support this other request asking for a waiting period before voting starts?
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Nov 10, 2022 at 21:10
  • @SonictheAnonymousHedgehog I did upvote it, so probably. I don’t really care exactly how it gets solved, but I think this is the third time I’ve encountered drama because of last minute nominations. I do not see any value in locking the comments.
    – ColleenV
    Nov 11, 2022 at 0:48

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