Best of the Valley: How Voting Works & How to Win

What Best of the Valley is and who runs it

Best of the Valley is the reader's choice program of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, a newspaper based in Alaska's Mat-Su Valley. Unlike the statewide ballots it sits beside, such as Best of Alaska, this one is deliberately local: it asks readers which businesses in their own valley deserve the title of best in each field. The paper's announcement describes it plainly as "our annual reader's choice."

The program is hosted directly on the newspaper's domain instead of a third-party contest platform. The live ballot page sits at frontiersman.com under the address frontiersman.com/its-best-of-the-valley-time/, and every phase of the contest, from nominations to results, is handled on that domain. Byline credit on the announcement goes to Jeremiah Bartz under the Voice of the Valley banner.

The ballot is organized under business-facing headings. The announcement names recreation and accommodation, food and drink, retail, services, people and professionals, venues and destinations, and health and wellness. A diner, a hardware store, a dentist and a hiking guide service would all find a home somewhere on that list.

The dated record for Best of the Valley

The program's confirmed footprint spans 2021 and 2026. The newspaper's own coverage anchors both ends: a 2021 article recalls "the third annual Frontiersman 2021 Best of the Valley, Toast of the Town Awards," held when "the Palmer Train Depot was the destination of the hip and the handsome," and the 2026 season opens with the announcement "It's Best of the Valley time!" An earlier piece on the paper's site notes that its "first annual Best of the Valley Toast of the Town event drew a sizable crowd Tuesday night at the Palmer Train Depot."

The 2026 cycle carries the most precise dates. Nominations were open at frontiersman.com through May 28, and the announcement adds that voting opens on June 1 and continues through June 7. That gives supporters a two-week stretch in late spring to take part, matching the post's promise that "for the next two weeks readers can visit our website, nominate and ultimately vote."

One set of facts is missing from everything the paper has printed about this ballot: a per-supporter voting limit, an eligibility policy, and a confirmed count of how many categories the full ballot carries; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. The category headings quoted above come from the announcement's own list and may be partial, so businesses should read the live form before planning a campaign.

How a supporter votes in Best of the Valley

Taking part is a matter of showing up at the right moment. The program runs in two phases on the same website. First comes the nomination window: readers visit frontiersman.com and enter the Mat-Su Valley businesses they believe deserve recognition, filing them under the heading that fits. Once nominations close, the second phase begins and the same audience returns to vote among the finalists that the nomination round produced.

Both actions are free and open to the newspaper's readers. The 2026 announcement makes the sequence explicit: nominate first, then "ultimately vote for the Best of the Valley." There is no entry fee, no third-party contest platform and no payment step described anywhere on the ballot page, which keeps participation as simple as a visit to the paper's site during the open window.

The timing matters more than anything else. A supporter who arrives in mid-May can nominate; a supporter who arrives after June 7 in the 2026 cycle has missed that year's vote entirely. Because the phases are short, businesses that want their customers involved need to communicate during both stretches, not just at the end. The same pattern repeats each cycle with fresh dates, so the practical habit is to check the Frontiersman's site each spring, confirm that year's window and act inside it.

How Best of the Valley sits beside its Alaska neighbours

Alaska's best-of calendar is crowded, but most of it points at Anchorage or the whole state. The Anchorage Daily News Best of Alaska and the Best of Alaska program both court a statewide audience, while the Best of Alaska Business and the Alaska Chamber Premier Business Awards approach business recognition from a trade angle rather than a reader's choice one. Juneau has its own local fixture in the Best of Juneau, and Fairbanks readers have the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Readers' Choice Awards from that city's daily paper.

Best of the Valley is the Mat-Su Borough's counterpart to those city papers' programs. Where the News-Miner serves Fairbanks and the Daily News serves Anchorage, the Frontiersman serves the valley between them, and its ballot asks specifically about businesses there. A Palmer or Wasilla shop that would be a small entry on a statewide list competes here against its actual neighbours.

The organizer's profile also shapes the tone. This is a community newspaper program with an in-person Toast of the Town celebration attached, not a chamber gala or a trade publication ranking. For a Mat-Su Valley business deciding where to spend promotional effort, the choice is less about which ballot is bigger and more about which audience it actually serves.

Building local support during the open window

The two-phase format gives a business two chances to mobilize. During nominations, the goal is simply to appear on the ballot: ask walk-in customers, email lists and social followers to submit the business's name under the right heading before May 28 in a cycle like 2026. Once voting opens on June 1, the ask shifts to returning and voting. A counter sign, a pinned social post and a short line in a customer newsletter, repeated across both phases, match exactly how the ballot is structured.

Keep the organizer's silence in mind. No guidance on outside vote help appears anywhere in the Frontiersman's printed material for this program, so anything beyond ordinary customer outreach rests on the live rules. General tactics that work across public ballots are covered in our award votes overview.