Django proposes counting quorum from members who actually vote
Serguey Asael Shinder1 min readThe Django Software Foundation proposed, on 18 September 2026, a new voting membership status to keep its elections valid as membership grows. The rule: if you have cast a ballot in a board election within the past two years is active and is counted for quorum; a member who did not stays a member but is kept out of the quorum tally until they signal an intent to vote.
The problem it fixes is arithmetic. Quorum is today reckoned against the whole roll, lapsed participants included. As the rolls grow, quorum becomes harder to reach and the validity of elections is put at risk. The post notes that counting the entire roll is the outlier, and that the Python Software Foundation took a similar step — in June 2024 it dropped the intent-to-vote affirmation for members who had cast a ballot in the prior election.
No one loses membership. Active status affects only how quorum is counted; reminders go out before each election, and a member can ask to be added back to the roll before it opens.
What it means
This is governance plumbing, and it is the kind that quietly breaks projects. An organisation whose quorum is unreachable cannot hold a valid election, and an open-source foundation that cannot elect a board has a real problem behind a boring headline.
Measuring against the engaged, not the enrolled, is the standard fix. The DSF is explicit that counting the full roll is the outlier among nonprofits. The interesting part is the two-year window — long enough to keep lapsed-but-returning members, short enough to shed a roll that only ever grows.