@amWhy The same can probably be said about users in general, and most likely life happens to them (or in other cases some don't get along with the site and quit).

I do wonder (even though this is highly unlikely) what will happen if there will be a single candidate for moderator? Will there even be an election?

@Zacky That's your convenient method for dismissing that my concern might be legitimate.

Does it makes sense to delete the nomination of José Carlos Santos on meta? I know it's unofficial, and the nomination is not well received, but that's a record of the community's opinion and should be visible (I don't know who delete it).

@ArcticChar It was deleted by Toby Mak, the one who posted the nomination.

@ArcticChar It was deleted by who made the nomination.

@AloizioMacedo I beat you to it! :P But thanks for coming by.

@Zacky We can't really know unless math.se and SE conducts further research; to dismiss my concern prior to that is, err, dismissive. And part of the problem on this site is the longstanding pattern of dismissing concerns expressed by women, without investigating them.

@Zacky And how would you know this about women's choices to remain on this site, or leave it? Assumptions? You also this is the case for most users: How do you know this? More assumptions?

@Zacky If I'm not mistaken, a priori there would be a (formal) election but the procedure could be short-circuited. See here for example, even though it is old.

I must note that this is almost impossible to happen here, in my opinion. Even if there are few accepted unofficial nominations, this may be the case due to low meta participation. As soon as the process effectively kicks in, people will be notified of an election and participation on the process will increase.

@Zacky Why waste the energy wondering, when it is virtually impossible that only one person runs. There will always be another person who thinks they can do better than the one who self-nominates first.

@Zacky AFAIK the nomination phase is make one week longer if the number of candidates is below the number of available positions plus one.

Meta Stack Exchange: What happens if there are no candidates in an election?

Something along those lines was mentioned during the election on Sports, but the extra week wasn't needed in the end: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/108760/2020/6/4

in fact, this is also mentioned in the FAQ post: There's an election going on. What's happening and how does it work?

> If the number of nominees is less than or equal to the number of moderator slots the election will add, this phase will be extended by another seven days. If this is still the case once the extended period is over, the election will either be cancelled entirely (on graduated sites) or the nominee(s) will be made pro-tem moderators (on beta sites).

@MartinSleziak Thanks for providing more accurate and updated info.

@amWhy I don't believe that what I asked was a waste of energy, and the fact that some sites experienced this (as per Martin's links from above) kinda supports it. In any event I don't mind if you believe otherwise.

@MartinSleziak Thanks for the information. Same goes to @AloizioMacedo.

@Zacky Of course you don't. :-)

I do wonder, what if no one votes?

I do wonder, what if a comet hits the earth so forcefully that half of it is rendered without internet power during the week of voting??