What’s New With This Year’s Best of Austin Poll

Here’s something we could all use more of: Good news. Positive energy. That’s why I get so much pleasure from running our annual Best of Austin Awards, which launch in this week’s issue. It’s our way of letting the folks around us know we think they’re doing outstanding work in their field. And earning a Best of Austin nomination can be truly impactful for them, be they artists, electricians, politicians, shop owners, or nonprofits.

Most of you probably know the ins and outs of this process since we’ve been doing it for (gulp) 35 years running. But for the new faces in the crowd, here’s an explainer.

What It Is

The Austin Chronicle’s Best of Austin Awards debuted in 1990. It’s evolved to include a Readers Poll (determined by y’all) and Critics Picks, which is where Chron staff and contributors get to chime in. While we do sell advertising around the issue, no awards have been or ever will be purchased/sponsored/traded or any other kind of tomfoolery.

The Timeline

The Readers Poll has two parts. We’re in the first round now – the nominating round – where y’all write in your faves in 175 categories across eight sections (Arts & Entertainment, Food & Drink, Kids & Family, Nightlife, Politics & Media, Shopping, Services, and Sports & Recreation). Voting in the nominating round runs through Monday, April 7, 11:59pm.

We then crunch the numbers and present readers with a finalist ballot (typically five finalists per category) to vote on from Thursday, May 8, to Monday, May 19. This is the round where you get to leave dazzling and witty comments about who you cast your votes for. We choose our favorite comments to run in the winners’ issue.

More number crunching and behind-the-scenes chaos ensues, culminating in a massive winners’ issue, on newsstands June 19.

How to Vote

Voting takes place online at vote.austinchronicle.com. (We do not accept print ballots.) You’ll have to give us an email address to vote; we use that address for balloting, and we sign you up for our daily newsletter (which you can promptly unsubscribe from, no hard feelings.) You may only vote once, but you can noodle on your ballot right up until the deadline – it gets locked in at midnight. Take your time – this ballot is loooooong. You don’t need to vote in every category or in order – jump around! But here’s a little incentive: Vote in 30 or more categories, and we’ll automatically enter you to win a pair of Austin FC tickets.

Anything Different This Year?

We’re always adjusting the ballot. This year, we’ve combined a few categories where we were seeing overlap, eliminated some low vote-getters, and debuted a new category – Best Queso – that seems so thunderingly obvious I don’t know how we went this long without it. We’ve also reintroduced Food & Drink awards into our main Best of Austin issue after a few years breaking them out into their own special fall issue. How come? Well, between the two BOA issues and our annual Austin Music Poll, we were suffering from voter – and pollster – fatigue. Who knows – we may revive Best of Austin: Restaurants again. For now, the only thing for sure is that change is constant. That’s a good thing! Keeps us all on our toes!

Am I Allowed to Campaign?

Heck yeah you are. In fact, we encourage it. We’ve built free “Get Out the Vote” social media assets you can download (you’ll find a link to that with the ballot online at vote.austinchronicle.com). Make it even easier for your fans by telling them which category they should vote for you in. If you’re gunning for a wild card – first, make sure we don’t have an existing category that’s already a good fit – then suggest what the wild card award should be (ex. “Best of Austin Awards – bestest, longest-running best-of awards in town”). That’ll help us sift through the responses and get a good count.

Here's what you can’t do: Pay for votes. Offer goods or services in exchange for votes. Sic a bunch of bots on us. Create multiple email accounts to vote for yourself a dozen times. Just... don't be a jerk about it, OK?

Why Should I Bother Voting?

Your vote matters. Earning a Best of Austin nomination can bring new patrons to a theatre company, more foot traffic to a park, more diners to a restaurant, and more donors to a worthy cause, for a few examples. Plus, it just feels good to give somebody a thumbs-up and let them know you appreciate them.