It’s time to cast your vote! Voting for the 2026 PSF Board Election is open starting today Tuesday, September 1st, 2:00 pm UTC, through Tuesday, September 15th, 2:00 pm UTC.
How to Vote
If you are a voting member of the PSF who affirmed your intention to participate in this year’s election or you voted in last year’s election, you will receive an email today from “OpaVote Voting Link ” with a link to your ballot. The subject line will read “Python Software Foundation Board of Directors Election 2026”. If you haven’t seen your ballot by Wednesday, please first check your spam folder for a message from “noreply@opavote.com”. If you can’t find the ballot email from OpaVote please get in touch by emailing psf-elections@pyfound.org so we can look into your account and make sure we have the most up-to-date email for you.
Four seats on the board are open, but you can vote to approve as many of the 17 candidates as you like. We’re delighted by how many of you are willing to contribute to the Python community by serving on the PSF Board! Make sure you take some time to look at all the nominee statements and choose your candidates carefully.
ATTN: Choose carefully before you press the big green vote button. Once your vote is cast, it cannot be changed.
An Informed Vote is a Great Vote
Nomination and supporting statements are the clearest way to see how each candidate actually thinks: their priorities, experience, and vision for the PSF. Rather than just voting on name recognition, we encourage you to read each candidate's nomination and supporting statements. PSF Board members shape real decisions about budget, programs, and community direction. Reading these statements helps ensure your vote reflects what the candidates would actually do in the role.
This year, the PSF election team has taken a few more steps to ensure informed voting. We invited this year’s candidates to participate in written interviews. You can find the candidate interviews on the PSF blog. We also encouraged this year’s candidates to open AMA (ask me anything) threads on discuss.python.org. You can find those threads under the PSF Board Election category on Discuss. Some great Q&A has already been taking place, so make sure to check them out!
Who can vote?
You need to be a Contributing, Supporting, or Fellow member and have affirmed your voting intention by August 25th, 2:00 pm UTC, to vote in this election. Per last year’s Bylaw change that allows for simplifying the voter affirmation process by treating past voting activity as intent to continue voting, if you voted last year, you have been automatically added to the 2026 voter roll. Please note: If you removed or changed your email on psfmember.org, you may not automatically be added to this year's voter roll.
Reminder that if you were formerly a Managing member, your membership has been updated to Contributing as of June 25th, 2025, per a recent Bylaw change that merged Managing and Contributing memberships.
If you’d like to learn more or sign up as a PSF Member, check out our membership types. You can check your membership status on your User Information page on psfmember.org (you will need to be logged in). If you have questions about your membership or the election please email psf-elections@pyfound.org
Facts Only
* Voting period is from Tuesday, September 1st, 2:00 pm UTC, to Tuesday, September 15th, 2:00 pm UTC.
* Voting members receive an email with a ballot link.
* Non-receipt of the ballot email should prompt contacting psf-elections@pyfound.org.
* Four board seats are open for approval of up to 17 candidates.
* Eligibility requires being a Contributing, Supporting, or Fellow member who affirmed voting intention by August 25th, 2:00 pm UTC.
* Past voters are automatically added to the voter roll if they voted in the previous election.
* Managing members' memberships were updated to Contributing as of June 25th, 2025.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The structure of this election process balances broad democratic inclusion with an explicit call for rigorous due diligence, particularly through the provision of nomination statements and candidate interviews. The system attempts to mitigate the risk of uninformed voting by emphasizing that board members make significant decisions regarding budget and community direction, positioning the review of materials as a necessary step toward informed agency. However, the method relies heavily on the voter's willingness to engage with supplementary material; the success of ensuring an "informed vote" depends on whether candidates actively provide substantive information beyond procedural necessities. The explicit instruction to choose carefully before voting acknowledges that mere name recognition is insufficient for decisions impacting community governance, suggesting a tension between open participation and high-quality engagement. A critical pattern emerging is the institutional framing of decision-making as requiring deep study—shifting the burden from simple preference to active analysis.
Bridge Questions: What mechanisms can be implemented to ensure that reading nomination statements leads directly to actionable insight rather than passive consumption? How can the organization further incentivize candidates to produce deeply substantive, comparative evidence for their vision? If a significant portion of voters neglects the supplementary materials, what are the secondary consequences for the integrity of the elected board's future direction?
Sentinel — Human
This text appears to be a factual announcement regarding an election process and voter instructions, exhibiting the direct, procedural style of an official organizational update.