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"Yeah, Rach's Platform Is Pretty Late"HEM Tiberius
ENN Publisher
There's been a lot of complaining in #EuroChat about the lack of platforms. President Rach's platform was posted tonight after seemingly endless days of speculation and waiting. Her platform now comes only 3 days before polls open
But was Rach's platform really late, or did it just feel late?
To answer that question, we consulted the history books. Looking at all modern Presidential runs (defined as 2014 through present day) we collected the election date and compared it to when the winning candidate posted their platform.
We only collected the winning candidate's standing date because (1) it was an easy way to eliminate outliers (i.e. joke candidates) and (2) because Rach is the likely winner it makes sense to compare her to what other winners did.
Here's the five number summary of the data gathered:
Minimum: | 3 Days Before Voting Starts |
1st Quartile: | 7 Days Before Voting Starts |
Median: | 9 Days Before Voting Starts |
3rd Quartile: | 10 Days Before Voting Starts |
Maximum: | 11 Days Before Voting Starts |
When we put that in a visual form, we get this box-and-whisker plot:
Looking at the data, there isn't much of a doubt that Rach's platform is, objectively, pretty late in the election cycle. The median number of days before the election that a winning candidate posts their platform is 9 days before election day. Roughly 75% of future Presidents post their platform at least 7 days before voting starts. This means, the overwhelming majority of the time, Europeians get at least one week to examine the victorious candidate's platform.
Rach isn't alone in the loser's circle here. She is joined by President Trinnien*, who only gave voters 3 days to review his platform in June 2016, and by chronic procrastinator President Anumia, who only gave 4 days and 5 days respectively in his two 2014 races.
The star student? In his six runs, President Writinglegend gave voters an average of 9.33 days before an election to review his platforms. In his "worst" performance he waited 3 days after standing opened to post his platform.
Update:
One thing I just thought of: it's actually a little unfair to base all these assessments on "days before election day the platform was posted", because the election period can be shorter or longer depending on how the Chancellery declares it.
But if we instead look at the data as "how many days after standing opened the platform was posted", it doesn't change the bottom line a time. As a matter of fact, Rach's 8 days after standing actually makes her a statistical outlier (ouch!).
It does however allow some, like President Aexnidaral, who had shorter total election periods to meet the median, though:
Five number summary:
Minimum: | 0 Days After Standing Opened |
1st Quartile: | 1 Day After Standing Opened |
Median: | 2 Days After Standing Opened |
3rd Quartile: | 3 Days After Standing Opened |
Maximum: | 8 Days After Standing Opened |
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*It should be noted, the author of this piece was running with Trinnien in that election.