@ShmuelBrin I think SE won't run an election that doesn't have "enough" candidates. I'm not sure if "enough" is seats+1 or some other number.
@ShmuelBrin flags are one reason. While some flags on posts cause things to enter review queues, a lot of flags (including all comment flags) come to moderators to handle. And while the site grows slowly, it has grown since our first election, so there's more to do overall.
We also want to be a little more resilient in the face of absences; people take vacations or have other reasons to be away and there's no reason to depend on two mods (or sometimes one!) carrying more of the load when we could grow the team.
And, speaking just for myself here, it's been a long time since our last election, and bringing some fresh perspectives onto the team would benefit everyone IMO.
