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I've been suspended for 7 days on Stack Overflow but I believe there's been a mistake, so I lodged an appeal.
The appeal is still pending.
I want to know, am I going to miss the election?
Can I still vote while the appeal is pending?
Is it possible for the results of the appeal to take longer than the actual suspension time?
UPDATE:
The election ended.
Even back when the Community Team had twice as many people on it, 7-day suspensions were pretty much never investigated. The standard timeline of events was always as follows:
While that sounds unfair to people who got suspended for a week, we simply do not have the resources to investigate every single appeal of a 7-day suspension. Unless there was something to indicate abuse or misbehavior about the moderator involved in issuing the suspension, the appeal will very likely be ignored in the end.
Keep in mind that, especially on Stack Overflow, there are many moderators and they consistently talk with each other. There is plenty of oversight even among co-moderators and when users complain, there are often other moderators looking at the information that was available to them to see if it was warranted. Even though staff can see a bit more into the situation, it is unlikely that we would somehow disagree with their decision regarding voting irregularities, even if we did look into it. Those specific suspensions are very rarely overturned.
So if you were suspended for 7 days, you should fully expect to serve out the entire length of a suspension. It has taken longer than that to get to standard user-submitted complaints* for pretty much the entirety of my time working here, and I highly doubt that is going to change any time soon. If the suspension happens to cover an election period, then yes that will prevent you from voting in the election.
* I say "standard" here because there are certain things that we would consider urgent and would be seen almost immediately, but an appeal of voting irregularities would never qualify as urgent.
Can I still vote while the appeal is pending?
No, you can't. Voting in an election requires 150 reputation, and while suspended you have only 1. After that your reputation goes back to normal.
Is it possible for the results of the appeal to take longer than the actual suspension time?
Given the size of the Community Team and the amount of items they have to process, it's certainly possible that the appeal takes longer than a week (which is the default duration for a first suspension).
Both the /contact us and community support emails are handled by the same team. They can see things us moderators can't and I wouldn't hold my breath to get a different answer.
Even without the delays due to having an understaffed community team, chances are you'll probably see out your suspension.
While moderators have no ability to see exactly where you voted, the CMs and Support teams do, and their answer is final, no matter where or how you relitigate it. I'd suggest looking at your history, and seeing where voting reversals happened. These invariably are for votes for the same person and I see a few reversals on your account. These are automatic and involve no people.
This is an outrage. You claim to have solid proof. I know for a fact that I'm innocent, and yet there is no way for me to prove it
As a moderator, I've heard every variation on this.
There will be other elections. Rather than working off a premise of "I couldn't have done this" - it's worth looking at it as "where did things go wrong?" - and improving on that.
The only people who can give you more information about your case right now are SE employees since it is to them that you appealed. Outside of that, you have no recourse for more information.
Given that the last thing they told you was
This issue has now been resolved. Please let us know if you have any questions or continue to have issues. This ticket can be re-opened for the next 30 days.
and did not unsuspend you, I wouldn't hold your breath that your later appeal will change their mind unless you provided some very compelling hard evidence showing that your suspension was incorrect.
If the appeal would take longer than your suspension, then you'll just end up serving your suspension. And if that duration exceeds the length of the election, you would indeed not be able to vote in it.
Right or wrong, none of us with no information about your case can say, but those are the facts.
I've been suspended for 7 days on Stack Overflow. The reason is supposedly for voting irregularity. That is incorrect, and so I lodged an appeal.
There are a number of different things that count as a "voting irregularity", there are even cases where co-workers or persons using the same public Wi-Fi vote in a pattern that, when added to other evidence, accumulates to suspicious behavior warranting action beyond a warning:
Would the following case be considered as "voting irregularities"?
“This account is temporarily suspended for voting irregularities.”
Why aren't users suspected of multiple voting irregularities suspended indefinitely?
I want to know, am I going to miss the election?
Yes
Can I still vote while the appeal is pending?
No
Is it possible for the results of the appeal to take longer than the actual suspension time?
Yes, it's a virtual certainty.
While it may seem unfair the decision ought to have been made for a good reason, the reason should have been documented and you should have been informed of it. If that turns out in your favor, a few weeks later, it would be unfair to re-run the election to include a single vote; and there is a margin of error which should be accounted for.
Depending on the nature of the mistake, on either side, a warning may be used; where one is well past the line so minimal a punishment would be unfair to the majority.
Bear in mind that some people have never done anything to get suspended, and any warnings have been infrequent (and edge cases, cough). So, being suspended is a fairly big deal, something to understand and take steps to avoid.
Once your complaint is processed the explanation should be provided to you, for you to understand and agree with; or dispute.
Your whole complaint seems to be that there were not sufficient details, and a general denial. Now that you've read the links at the top of this answer you can decide if a case of "voting irregularities" has a definition wider than you anticipated.
In the end it turned out that during the election at no time were the votes for the candidates close; a single vote could not have changed the outcome.
Your request to have your appeal processed more quickly, or a request that an exception should be made to allow you to vote, would have had no effect. It would have set a precedent to allow such requests, at the expense of other matters that must be attended to.
