NANOG Changed Four Rules. Only 178 Members Voted.

Why it matters

Four bylaw amendments won between 89.5% and 97.7% of votes cast in NANOG’s 2026 election. The same official record lists 702 eligible voters and 178 ballots: a 25.4% participation rate. Those are two different denominators, and the distinction is the story.

Daniel Kade2 November 2026 at 04:46 UTCReading Time 2 minLast update: 2 November 2026

A small voting group sits against a field of empty seats.

Summary

NANOG reported 178 votes among 702 eligible voters in its 20–26 October election, or 25.4% participation.
All four proposed bylaw changes passed, with 89.5% to 97.7% support among yes and no votes; abstentions are excluded from those approval percentages.

NANOG’s 2026 election produced a neat result and an untidy denominator. The organization recorded 178 votes from 702 eligible voters. That is 25.4% participation, calculated from NANOG’s own figures. Two directors, Adair Thaxton and Marlin Martes, were elected to three-year terms beginning 1 January 2027. All four proposed bylaw amendments passed.

The approval figures look emphatic: 97.7% for §4.1.1, 89.5% for §4.3, 95.3% for §10.3 and 97.6% for §10.3.1. But these percentages compare yes votes with yes plus no votes. Abstentions are left out. For example, the liaison amendment drew 172 yes votes and four no votes, with two abstentions. Its 97.7% is 172 divided by 176, not 172 divided by all 178 ballots.

The four changes update the organizations named in NANOG’s liaison clause; clarify how the six-year consecutive board-service limit applies to candidates and the one-year break before a return; specify electronic voting during the NANOG conference for at least 48 hours; and allow short candidate presentations at a members meeting and/or open plenary. NANOG described the package as an effort to align the bylaws with recent practice.

The amendments therefore have clear support among ballots cast. The wider electorate is harder to characterize. The public results list 702 eligible voters, but do not say why 524 did not cast a ballot. Nonparticipation is not a “no,” and it is not a hidden “yes.” The record supports a narrower statement: 178 people voted, and the participating voters approved all four changes.

That distinction matters because election reporting often puts a large approval percentage in the headline and leaves turnout in the footnote. The arithmetic is not a verdict on NANOG’s authority. It is the boundary around what this result can show. Anyone describing the amendments as broadly approved should name the population: the ballots counted, not all eligible members.

Sources: NANOG 2026 election results · proposed bylaw amendments · NANOG bylaws.