It's still too early to say which National Labor Relations Board regional office ultimately will lead the regions in the average shortest time between the filing of a certification petition and the conduct of an election under the National Labor Relations Board’s ambush election rule, but an early analysis of NLRB case data shows Region 28 in Phoenix, Arizona, with an average election period of only 18 days, significantly ahead of the other regional offices.  (See the Chart below.)  The sample size for the elections conducted by Region 28 was 8 elections, and it included election periods of 13 days, 14 days, 16 days, and two at 17 days. 

Region 22, in Newark, New Jersey, conducted one election in 9 days, the shortest time between petition and election.  Region 4 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which conducted an election in 10 days, had the second shortest election period.  Eight regional offices conducted elections in 14 days or less, and Region 5, in Baltimore, Maryland, conducted two elections in 14 days.

As reported in a previous post, an analysis of petition filings and other NLRB docket activity in 222 representation cases filed at the NLRB during the period beginning April 14, 2015, the effective date of the new NLRB rules, and ending June 5, 2015 (the "Relevant Period"), showed that the average number of days between petition and scheduled election in representation cases filed during the Relevant Period in 2015 in which an election at a polling place was scheduled as of June 5, 2015, was 24.8 days. 

The results stated above are based on NLRB reports and docket activity as of June 5, 2015, in the cases identified in Table 1 in the previous post. The NLRB reports and dockets are available at www.nlrb.gov.  Dates of election and mail-ballot vote counting for cases filed during the period April 5, 2015, through June 5, 2015, were obtained primarily by examining Notices of Election and other docketed documents.  Many of the cases filed during the Relevant Period in 2015 were still in progress as of June 5, 2015, the latest date on which documents in the cases were examined.  With more cases over time and more complete docket information, the data will enable more confidence in analytical conclusions regarding the performance of the various NLRB regions under the new election rules.