Election Period

In general, "election period" means a time allotted to make a choice. However, the exact definition changes with different contexts.

For a politician, "election period" means a lot of hand shaking and baby kissing. In romance, it represents the two seconds you have to make a decision after someone asks you to marry them; you either have to say "yes" quickly...or face a very awkward situation.

In finance, there are two main connotations.

First, there’s what it means for bonds. Certain debt instruments have a clause that allows them to be either extended or retracted. For these bonds, a moment comes when you have to make a decision: roll the bond over for another period, or get rid of the bond. The point where you have to make the decision is the election period for that bond.

The terms of the bond issue will outline when the decision has to be made, usually representing a short period of time.

In the personal finance world, an election period often refers to decisions like whether to reup for health insurance. The term comes up a lot for Medicare, where the election period represents the span of time when a person can decide whether ot not to sign up for the program.