Steve,
Some of us can pretty much do any date as long as we have a little notice. If my ballot comes up and I have any date between July 1 and Sept 15, they should be able to pick the date that has the least number of hikers and then assign it.
Considering how buggy the system was last year, when the 15 different start dates didn't stick, it was a royal pain to re-enter everything.
Oh well....why bother simplifying things.
