After a question period expires, how long until it goes into voting?

Its goes into voting as soon as it expires. It is best that you don't let your question go into voting. You get 3 points for yourself if you choose one of the answers to your question as Best Answer, rather than leaving it to voting.

Here is the 'life cycle of a question' on Yahoo Answers.

Posted.

After 4 HOURS: buttons to 'Select as Best Answer' show up. At that time, the asker can resolve the question by choosing the Best Answer or can use the 'edit' feature to 'send to voting'.

After 4 DAYS: IF the asker does not choose Best Answer or send to voting previously, question expires and goes to voting automatically.

After 2 DAYS: Voting lasts 2 days. If there is a winner by vote (NOT by thumbs up), that person is chosen as Best Answer. If there is no voting or a tie, question stays in voting until the tie is broken. This can be years.

But that is why I belong to the Yahoo Group, TieBusters! We are a group dedicated to voting for all those OLD tied questions. The link to the group is on my profile page (click my avatar).

I have seen questions on here after they have gone into voting stay that way for a while.