Why was this closed and then re-opened without adjustments and why some comments left and other removed?

Question

I'm curious why a mod closed this question Time to reconsider the secret ballot methodology? and turned right back around and re-opened it without any edits? The comment was "Not suitable for this site" during that closure.

I'm also curious to know if this is something normal or if any other mods have done this in the past and what reason they too might have done such a thing, or is Phillip the only mod in Politics SE history to do such a thing like this and I'm the only person to experience such treatment with a question asked.

Obviously there was a change of heart for some reason, and moving comments to a chat doesn't seem like a legitimate reason to make a closed question more appropriate for the site.

So why was this done and is such an event by a mod normal or common type of thing?

I also saw a comment stating "Hooray, this question was reopened" in my history but no where in the comments or chat history do I see this comment so it's like the mod at his discretion picked which comments to leave, which to move to chat, and which to make disappear in hopes that that would stay hidden. Is this normal behavior for a mod or is Phillip the only one to do such a thing?

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Answer 1

I was on the fence about whether to put this question on hold or leave it open. I already clicked to close it, but then reconsidered and decided to let the community decide.

As you can read on the help center article "What topics can I ask about here?";

Politics Stack Exchange is for objective questions about governments, policies and political processes. It is not a place to advance opinions or debate, but rather for exchanging objective information about the policies, processes, and personalities that comprise the political arena.

The reason why I was considering to put it on hold was because it looks like a push question. It seems more interested in advertising and discussing a political idea rather than asking a real question with the goal to learn more about politics and political processes.

The reason I reconsidered was:

1. There were already two upvoted answers
2. While several people downvoted the question, nobody voted to close it. Which to me implies that the community considers it a bad question, but not a question which should be put on hold.

The reason why I moved most of the comments to chat was because they were not concerned with improving the question, but more with debating its subject matter. Debates are generally not welcome on this website, because they more often than not escalate into arguments and petty name-calling. But this debate was of a comparably low toxicity level, so I decided to move it to chat instead.

Answer 2

Sometimes moderators click the wrong button. Sometimes moderators change their mind about something they've done and reverse their action.

It happens, moderators are human.

Not all actions by moderators are malicious or intended to annoy people.

Answer 3

Already answered by Phillip of course, but just to address this part specifically:

I also saw a comment stating "Hooray, this question was reopened" in my history but no where in the comments or chat history do I see this comment so it's like the mod at his discretion picked which comments to leave, which to move to chat, and which to make disappear in hopes that that would stay hidden. Is this normal behavior for a mod or is Phillip the only one to do such a thing?

No, you didn't see a comment stating "Hooray, this question was reopened". You saw an automated updated from Stack Exchange about your question, the content of which was "Hooray, this question was reopened".

As a general point of principle; the mods aren't out to get you.