<p>Today I've seen a specific user comment on multiple threads that the target of a close-as-duplicate is not accepted, and therefore one cannot vote to close as a duplicate with the target thread as the duplicate.</p>

<p>Is this the case? My expectation is that if this were true, the interface would not permit one to vote to close-as-duplicate unless an answer in the target thread were accepted.</p>

<p>Moreover, I've been active on this site for several years and have not encountered this explanation before. Does it have any merit?</p>
