"By up-to-date, I mean that the follower will grant its vote only if the candidate’s last entry term (included in the RequestVote) is higher, or the candidate’s last entry index (also included) is higher for the same term. If the candidate’s log isn’t more up-to-date than the follower’s, the latter won’t grant its vote."
Is this why election timeouts are random? To guarantee that at least one candidate is more up-to-date than others, as measured by the last entry term?
Check section 5.4.3 in the paper, where it proves it quite elegantly IMHO: https://raft.github.io/raft.pdf
BinaryIgor•2mo ago