Don't know if there is any such member in the local boards or general who have contributed effectively to the forum and have made quality post but still not managed ti reach the 50 earned merit level then probably he has not made useful Post.The reason is let's assume he is not noticed by the sources but we already have this thread where he can submit his post for merit as he is familiar with forum as local board submission is also there.

Speaking about general boards then also sources and other members must have merited them but we can say that if we are talking about specific time period like say he has registered few days back or few weeks back then it's hard to earn 50 merits but as said he/she might be familiar with forum categories then he has spend quality time here so he can gain merits as well.We have more merit giving threads like this one from @fillippone also where he can gain additional merits.

But the point is that if 50 merits line is set for submitting your vote then it's fine giving memebers familiar with forum and good members a chance otherwise it will also be spammed up and hard to reach on the final results so keeping it this way is good according to me.