On some other sites (Blender, Network Engineering, etc) the number of candidates barely reached the necessary 4 for the election to happen.

@LiveForever yes, it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. There are four pro-tem mods now, which is why the election is for four rather than three. (We started with three but asked for another later.) I don't follow every election, but off hand I can't think of another first election that had a primary.

It did happen on Code Review and Magento, as well as on localized SO sites pt.SO and ru.SO. But 17 appears to be the record for a first election.

Wow, 12 and 13 -- I stand corrected.

(I haven't looked at sites for which I don't speak the language. I should have figured that a community strong enough to rate an SO site in another language would also be strong enough to have a lot of interest in elections.)

Was there even that many out from the gate running for US President 2016 from the Republican side?

@MonicaCellio What do you feel about the election right now? Do you think all 4 pro-tems will be elected?

@random I seem to recall that the Republican field was 16 or 17 at one point -- heard in the context of debate planning, when they needed to filter that down to something managable.

There are non-pro-tem candidates with twice the candidate score of some pro-tems. It's not all about the numbers, but shows they are heavyweights.

@Seth it's a strong field. (And, frankly, I'm surprised at all the praise I'm getting -- why are people singling me out among the pro-tems, all of whom are active and visible?) So far three of the pro-tems have stood, with nominations closing tomorrow. Some candidates aren't ready yet and will I assume get eliminated in the primary, but there are several more than four who I'd be happy to see win.

@LiveForever yes, we have several high-rep, active users standing. Two of the pro-tems only have about 5k rep and that really hurts. There are also a couple badges that none of us have because either we're not eligible (Deputy) or we intentionally defer to the community (review silver and gold badges).

I think the active community members will vote based on the whole picture and not just the score. How many people will vote just based on the score is an open question. I'm curious what our voter turnout is going to be like.

@MonicaCellio cool!

A creative interpretation of "off-topic" at SharePoint (by a mod):

> This question appears to be off-topic because it is older than three months, the poster of the question hasn't been seen for three months and it contains no answers or no upvoted answers.

> If the original poster (OP) of the question returns, and want to have the question reopened - it will be reopened if it's closed for the reasons mentioned above.

That's...novel.

@LiveForever That's what happens when SE removed too localized and replaced it with "off-topic".

Well, even "too localized" wasn't contingent on OP's failing to visit the site every three months.

@LiveForever Close as it gets ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I mean, the OP obviously doesn't care much (in the majority of cases)

I usually don't care how much the OP cares...

you're missing the point, but that's fine.

@MonicaCellio Wow, quite the election. Wish you luck!

@Keen thanks! I'm confident the community will elect a good slate. I hope I'm part of it, but even if I'm not, I expect the community will get a good result.

Several moderators (there or elsewhere) are standing in this election, by the way. Should be interesting!

> One Cedar Rapids woman found herself temporarily banned from Tinder after asking her matches if they planned to support presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.

If you use Tinder and feel a burn shortly afterwards, consult your local stash of antibiotics

That's it, nominations are closed. 19 candidates. Stock up on popcorn. worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/election/1

Brings back memories of the all-out-barely-can-half-of-them-in-the-ring Wrestlemanias of decades' past

@random Don't encourage people to overuse antibiotics!

It'll be fine. They're just leftovers from when people failed to follow through the full course and stopped when they first felt slightly better

On the opposite end of spectrum, 1st Web Apps election was called at the end of nomination period, with all nominees elected by default. I don't think SE ever did that again.