diff --git a/dev-tools/scripts/poll-mirrors.pl b/dev-tools/scripts/poll-mirrors.pl
deleted file mode 100755
index cdbd3bb68fb..00000000000
--- a/dev-tools/scripts/poll-mirrors.pl
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,155 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/perl
-#
-# poll-mirrors.pl
-#
-# This script is designed to poll download sites after posting a release
-# and print out notice as each becomes available.  The RM can use this
-# script to delay the release announcement until the release can be
-# downloaded.
-#
-#
-# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
-# contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
-# this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
-# The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
-# (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
-# the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-# limitations under the License.
-#
-
-use strict;
-use warnings;
-use Getopt::Long;
-use POSIX qw/strftime/;
-use LWP::UserAgent;
-
-my $rel_path;
-my $version;
-my $interval = 300;
-my $details = 0;
-
-my $result = GetOptions ("version=s" => \$version,
-                         "details!" => \$details,
-                         "path=s" => \$rel_path,
-                         "interval=i" => \$interval);
-
-my $usage = ""
-    . "$0 -v version [ -i interval (seconds; default: 300) ] [ -details ]\n"
-    . "$0 -p some/explicit/path [ -i interval (seconds; default: 300) ] [ -details ]\n"
-    ;
-
-unless ($result) {
-  print STDERR $usage;
-  exit(1);
-}
-
-unless (defined($version) xor defined($rel_path)) {
-  print STDERR "You must specify either -version or -path but not both\n$usage";
-  exit(1);
-}
-
-my $label;
-my $apache_url_suffix;
-my $maven_url;
-
-if (defined($version)) {
-  if ($version !~ /^\d+(?:\.\d+)+/) {
-    print STDERR "You must specify the release version as a number.\n$usage";
-    exit(1);
-  }
-  $label = $version;
-  $apache_url_suffix = "lucene/java/$version/changes/Changes.html";
-  $maven_url = "http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/lucene/lucene-core/$version/lucene-core-$version.pom.asc";
-} else {
-  # path based
-  $apache_url_suffix = $label = $rel_path;
-}
-my $previously_selected = select STDOUT;
-$| = 1; # turn off buffering of STDOUT, so status is printed immediately
-select $previously_selected;
-
-my $apache_mirrors_list_url = "http://www.apache.org/mirrors/";
-
-my $agent = LWP::UserAgent->new();
-$agent->timeout(2);
-
-my $maven_available = defined($maven_url) ? 0 : -999;
-
-my @apache_mirrors = ();
-
-my $apache_mirrors_list_page = $agent->get($apache_mirrors_list_url)->decoded_content;
-if (defined($apache_mirrors_list_page)) {
-  #<TR>
-  #  <TD ALIGN=RIGHT><A HREF="http://apache.dattatec.com/">apache.dattatec.com</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="http://apache.dattatec.com/">@</A></TD>
-  #
-  #  <TD>http</TD>
-  #  <TD ALIGN=RIGHT>8 hours<BR><IMG BORDER=1 SRC="icons/mms14.gif" ALT=""></TD>
-  #  <TD ALIGN=RIGHT>5 hours<BR><IMG BORDER=1 SRC="icons/mms14.gif" ALT=""></TD>
-  #  <TD>ok</TD>
-  #</TR>
-  while ($apache_mirrors_list_page =~ m~<TR>(.*?)</TR>~gis) {
-    my $mirror_entry = $1;
-    next unless ($mirror_entry =~ m~<TD>\s*ok\s*</TD>\s*$~i); # skip mirrors with problems
-    if ($mirror_entry =~ m~<A\s+HREF\s*=\s*"([^"]+)"\s*>~i) {
-      my $mirror_url = $1;
-      push @apache_mirrors, "${mirror_url}${apache_url_suffix}";
-    }
-  }
-} else {
-  print STDERR "Error fetching Apache mirrors list $apache_mirrors_list_url";
-  exit(1);
-}
-
-my $num_apache_mirrors = $#apache_mirrors;
-
-my $sleep_interval = 0;
-while (1) {
-  print "\n", strftime('%d-%b-%Y %H:%M:%S', localtime);
-  print "\nPolling $#apache_mirrors Apache Mirrors";
-  print " and Maven Central" unless ($maven_available);
-  print "...\n";
-
-  my $start = time();
-  $maven_available = (200 == $agent->head($maven_url)->code)
-    unless ($maven_available);
-  @apache_mirrors = &check_mirrors;
-  my $stop = time();
-  $sleep_interval = $interval - ($stop - $start);
-
-  my $num_downloadable_apache_mirrors = $num_apache_mirrors - $#apache_mirrors;
-  print "$label is ", ($maven_available ? "" : "not "),
-  "downloadable from Maven Central.\n" if defined($maven_url);
-  printf "$label is downloadable from %d/%d Apache Mirrors (%0.1f%%)\n",
-    $num_downloadable_apache_mirrors, $num_apache_mirrors,
-    ($num_downloadable_apache_mirrors*100/$num_apache_mirrors);
-
-  last if ($maven_available && 0 == $#apache_mirrors);
-
-  if ($sleep_interval > 0) {
-    print "Sleeping for $sleep_interval seconds...\n";
-    sleep($sleep_interval)
-  }
-}
-
-sub check_mirrors {
-  my @not_yet_downloadable_apache_mirrors;
-  for my $mirror (@apache_mirrors) {
-
-    ### print "\n$mirror\n";
-    if (200 != $agent->head($mirror)->code) {
-      push @not_yet_downloadable_apache_mirrors, $mirror;
-      print $details ? "\nFAIL: $mirror\n" : "X";
-    } else {
-      print ".";
-    }
-  }
-  print "\n";
-  return @not_yet_downloadable_apache_mirrors;
-}
diff --git a/dev-tools/scripts/poll-mirrors.py b/dev-tools/scripts/poll-mirrors.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1ff7e544ff8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev-tools/scripts/poll-mirrors.py
@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+#
+# vim: softtabstop=2 shiftwidth=2 expandtab
+#
+# Python port of poll-mirrors.pl
+#
+# This script is designed to poll download sites after posting a release
+# and print out notice as each becomes available.  The RM can use this
+# script to delay the release announcement until the release can be
+# downloaded.
+#
+#
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+# contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+# this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+# The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+# (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+# the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+#
+import argparse
+import datetime
+import ftplib
+import re
+import sys
+import time
+
+try:
+  from urllib.parse import urlparse
+except:
+  from urlparse import urlparse
+
+try:
+  import http.client as http
+except ImportError:
+  import httplib as http
+
+def p(s):
+  sys.stdout.write(s)
+  sys.stdout.flush()
+
+def mirror_contains_file(url):
+  url = urlparse(url)
+  
+  if url.scheme == 'http':
+    return http_file_exists(url)
+  elif url.scheme == 'ftp':
+    return ftp_file_exists(url)
+
+def http_file_exists(url):
+  exists = False
+
+  try:
+    conn = http.HTTPConnection(url.netloc)
+    conn.request('HEAD', url.path)
+    response = conn.getresponse()
+
+    exists = response.status == 200
+  except:
+    pass
+
+  return exists
+
+def ftp_file_exists(url):
+  listing = []
+  try:
+    conn = ftplib.FTP(url.netloc)
+    conn.login()
+    listing = conn.nlst(url.path)
+    conn.quit()
+  except Exception as e:
+    pass
+
+  return len(listing) > 0
+
+def check_url_list(lst):
+  ret = []
+  for url in lst:
+    if mirror_contains_file(url):
+      p('.')
+    else:
+      p('X')
+      ret.append(url)
+
+  return ret
+
+parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Checks that all Lucene mirrors contain a copy of a release')
+parser.add_argument('-version', '-v', help='Lucene version to check', required=True)
+parser.add_argument('-interval', '-i', help='seconds to wait to query again pending mirrors', type=int, default=300)
+args = parser.parse_args()
+
+try:
+  conn = http.HTTPConnection('www.apache.org')
+  conn.request('GET', '/mirrors/')
+  response = conn.getresponse()
+  html = response.read()
+except Exception as e:
+  p('Unable to fetch the Apache mirrors list!\n')
+  sys.exit(1)
+
+apache_path = 'lucene/java/{}/changes/Changes.html'.format(args.version);
+maven_url = 'http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/' \
+            'org/apache/lucene/lucene-core/{0}/lucene-core-{0}.pom.asc'.format(args.version)
+maven_available = False
+
+pending_mirrors = []
+for match in re.finditer('<TR>(.*?)</TR>', str(html), re.MULTILINE | re.IGNORECASE | re.DOTALL):
+  row = match.group(1)
+  if not '<TD>ok</TD>' in row:
+    # skip bad mirrors
+    continue
+
+  match = re.search('<A\s+HREF\s*=\s*"([^"]+)"\s*>', row, re.MULTILINE | re.IGNORECASE)
+  if match:
+    pending_mirrors.append(match.group(1) + apache_path)
+
+total_mirrors = len(pending_mirrors)
+
+while True:
+  p('\n' + str(datetime.datetime.now()))
+  p('\nPolling {} Apache Mirrors'.format(len(pending_mirrors)))
+  if not maven_available:
+    p(' and Maven Central')
+  p('...\n')
+
+  if not maven_available:
+    maven_available = mirror_contains_file(maven_url)
+
+  start = time.time()
+  pending_mirrors = check_url_list(pending_mirrors)
+  stop = time.time()
+  remaining = args.interval - (stop - start)
+
+  available_mirrors = total_mirrors - len(pending_mirrors)
+
+  p('\n\n{} is{}downloadable from Maven Central\n'.format(args.version, maven_available and ' ' or ' not '))
+  p('{} is downloadable from {}/{} Apache Mirrors ({:.2f}%)\n'.format(args.version, available_mirrors, 
+                                                                      total_mirrors,
+                                                                      available_mirrors * 100 / total_mirrors))
+  if len(pending_mirrors) == 0:
+    break
+
+  if remaining > 0:
+    p('Sleeping for {} seconds...\n'.format(remaining))
+    time.sleep(remaining)
+