If someone contests a vacancy, and no other competitors add their contentions in the normal 24 hour period before the election begins - so, if someone is running unopposed for a vacant position - is there any real benefit to waiting out the entire voting period for the election to be over?

In cases of vacancy, perhaps the period before an election can officially begin should be extended by another day, to give other guild members the chance to contest while allowing them a slight grace period for OOC concerns that may prevent them from issuing a contest right away. But after this period has passed, if only one candidate is even running, is there really a point to gathering the votes and waiting even longer? Even if a 5 vote minimum was needed to win, or something, it seems like leaving the positions open during a pseudo-election is actually more detrimental to the guild.

Opinions? It may be there's some serious political flaw here I missed, but if not, I think it would be a good modification.

Yes.

People can still join the election late.

It is still possible to contest a position after the election opens for voting. That is the purpose for elections requiring voting even when the person is unopposed. Someone could contest in the 11th hour and potentially win.

Ooh, okay. That makes a lot more sense.