please consider the following mwe:

```
\documentclass[tikz, margin=3mm]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning,  
                shapes}

\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}[
node distance = 3mm and 9mm,
 block/.style = {rectangle, draw, minimum height=22mm},
 ellip/.style = {draw, ellipse, align=center},
                    ]
\node (n1) [block] {block};
\node (n2) [ellip, above right=of n1.east]  {longer text\\ in two lines};
\node (n3) [ellip, below right=of n1.east]  {short\\ text};
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

```

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/IJpPe.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/IJpPe.png)

why the distance between ellipses and block are different? do i miss something in positioning of ellipses? it seems that the text in shapes are aligned instead of shapes ...

**edit:** 
after reading `tikz & pgf` manual again, i have impression, that ellipses is actually build from two shapes: one (of rectangle form) for text and one tight fit over for ellipses shape. it seems that distance defined by `positioning` library consider "inner" text shape. to see this, please change `node distance = 3mm and 9mm`, in above mwe to `node distance = 1mm and 9mm`. resuted image is than:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/m63CE.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/m63CE.png)

is this a bug?