Why does the final election phase only last 4 days?

Question

I noticed the actual Election phase started last Friday afternoon, and ends tomorrow (Tuesday). Why is the actual voting phase of the election only 4 days long, and 2 of those days are weekend days?

I would have expected it to last a week, as the voting phase is probably the most important part of the election. If a user visits the election page once throughout the entire election processes, we'd ideally like it to be during the voting phase so they cast their vote.

In contrast, the Nomination phase was 7 days (Mon-Mon) and the Primary phase was 5 days (Mon-Fri). It seems strange that the most important phase would run only 4 days (Fri-Tues), and cover the weekend period which is typically a lower-traffic period for SO.

Maybe it just seems weird to me because Programmers.SE just had an Election as well, and their Election phase lasted 8 days (Mon-Tues). They didn't have enough candidates for a Primary phase though.

Answer 1

Your final paragraph points out the simple source of it all - primaries. Elections currently take place over a fixed 15 day period. The Nomination Phase occupies the first seven days. Then, the last 8 days are either divided between the Primary and the Election, or just are the Election as a whole. This process is aimed to keep consistency in the process and also to prevent the process from being exceedingly prolonged because of some extra people nominating. This is more of a point for the more common occurrence of 11-13 people nominating, than when there is a major 20-30 candidate parade.

The absolute number of days, I don't think is a major issue. The timing across the weekend, however, I do share concern about, as that essentially halves the amount of time, and at that point the time allotted feels small. I can think of a couple possible changes that could be done to address that issue.

• We could shift the ratio of Primary:Election from 4:4 to 3:5. This gives solid weekday of time for the start of the election (which is usually when most activity happens), and also avoids extending the duration of the election. The Primary still happens across the midweek, so it gets quite the visibility in its short time space. I'm personally fond of this solution as it has the least complexity in implementation and maintains the same time span.
• We could extend the Election Phase by 2 days if a Primary Phase happens. This will accommodate for the weekend, simple and straight, although it'll cause ending times to be scattered, especially with concurrent elections, if some sites don't have a Primary Phase. But that's pretty minor and more of a nitpick than any serious issue - 2 days is really just a weekend. This would be like if we delayed the election phase due to the weekend, but I feel that it's better for everyone involved if we just did an extension instead of a delay.
• We could just make each phase a whole week, with the primary week being wholly removed if there are 10 or fewer candidates. This makes the most consistency, the easiest to understand on paper for voters, and allows for maximum time in the decision making process. That said, it allows for maximum time, which can really drag on if the primary triggers for only 11-13 candidates. I personally feel that a whole week for the primary is overkill, but this solution is the least complex in execution and that makes it considerable.

Answer 2

Another idea from @GraceNote: The primary phase could be reduced, but with the option to vote for a person during the nomination phase. After all, the primary phase is all about voting for a particular person. Thus, have the primary phase be just 2 days, but allow for voting in the last several days of the nomination phase.