It’s an odd Friday, which means it’s time for an odd figure. Today, how long are your public polls open for executive elections? We pull data from 24 SLUGs Schools to get a better picture.

As best we can tell, these are the length of calendar days that polling remains open, derived from governing documents. Some have a minimum number of days, some have a 3 or 4 day range of length, and some have strictly prescribed lengths.

We can see some outliers here: some where a polling period could theoretically be seconds long, and one that stretches over a week.

But fundamentally, we’re looking at 3 being a student union favourite.

We have some notable exclusions and notes here, UM in Montreal requires a sign-up to get their bylaws. UMSU in Manitoba got their 3.5 midpoint rounded up to 4 days. Humber doesn’t have executive elections but has a Board, so their numbers reflect those elections. Georgian has no central general elections, elections happen campus-by-campus, so they don’t show up here either.

Think we got something wrong? We’re looking at mandatory requirements under a standing policy or bylaw, not norms. But if you do know of us being incorrect, let us know at our contact page.

We originally wanted to explore when elections happened, but turns out there is a lot of range out there, and data visualization is probably off the table, so this is our quick fix for you today. Hope you enjoy your weekend.

So, the figure is 4, four SLUGs institutions where, theoretically, polling stations could be opened just long enough for the current president to nip inside, choose his preferred candidates, and for voting to close.

And with that, we’re #OFF