Today, CCP pushed back the deadline for CSM registration by three days citing concerns that having less than 50 candidates in the running may result in a decrease in both voter apathy and overall confusion during the election.
The new deadline of May 13th is intended to give more time to low effort candidates, so that they have a fair chance at crowding the field and exhausting the average voter’s attention span. The election cycle of CSM 13 featured a total of 47 candidates with less than half that number actually having a platform or knowing what the acronym “CSM” stood for. Thankfully, voter turnout was low and voters who were not affiliated with a null-sec power bloc were easily confused by both the concept of STV and the massive amount of superfluous candidates.
The final result of that election was a CSM dominated by no less than 5 members of The Imperium in addition to 2 people who would join The Imperium in the following years.
This year, CCP and the null blocs share concern over both the inability for joke candidates to garner meaningful support and the threatening success of many non-bloc affiliated candidates in securing endorsements. If a dozen joke candidates are unable to split up the vote then the arithmetic of the election might tilt in favor of viable candidates who are not part of null-sec. CCP is planning to extend the deadline even more and offer a free 7-day Rookie ship skin to any first-time candidate who signs up for CSM this year.
These valiant efforts by CCP may simply not be enough; many of the longtime incumbents have chosen not to run this year at all. Making matters even worse, a DDoS attack and subsequent mitigation efforts blocked several last-minute candidates from using the signup platform. It’s an uncertain time in the world of New Eden where once upon a time, the outcome of elections could be easily factored, predicted, and planned. CSM 15 is still a total unknown.
