The process shouldn’t really be that opaque. It’s the same every year. At the same time every year. Triggered by the release of the latest major version of Python. Described in PEP 13, documented in yearly PEPs (this year’s is PEP 8107.) There was an announcement of the upcoming timeline, and there was an announcement when nominations opened (although that one seems to be hidden now, probably to avoid confusion.) There’s of course a whole separate category you can set as many alerts or notifications on as you like.
But realistically, the elections are only ever a year away. Given that candidacy from non-core-team members need a nomination from a core team member, not to mention fairly broad support to be electable (even with only 6 candidates ;p), any time is a good time to start preparing your candidacy.
(I do regret not pushing more people to run this year. I was expecting the same last-minute flurry as previous years, and also more hesitant to push people since I’m not on the SC myself right now. That said, I’m perfectly happy with any combination of the current candidates, including the one that doesn’t involve me, so I’m not that regretful. I will be pushing more people again in the future, though.)