Best of Peoria (Peoria Times): How Voting Works & How to Win

What is Best of Peoria and who runs it?

Best of Peoria is the community favorites ballot the Peoria Times puts in front of readers in Peoria, Arizona. The paper's own invitation sets the tone: "This is your opportunity to share your favorites with your neighbors." The field stretches across "a restaurant, a business providing superior service or an organization doing good works in our community," and the welcome closes with a nudge to "Cast your vote and let your voice be heard!" An earlier introduction on the publisher's magazine site framed the whole exercise as "a list of the people, places and things that make Greater Peoria the best place to live, work and play… according to you!" Breadth like that turns the ballot into a wide portrait of local life rather than a ranking confined to a single industry.

For the 2026 cycle the working ballot sits at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BestofPeoria2026. Entries stay on the publisher's home ground, where the printed line reads "Submissions will only be accepted through the contest on www.PeoriaTimes.com." Those same legal notes set one boundary for businesses hoping to appear: a single entry covers only part of the slate rather than every line at once, so no restaurant, salon or charity can sweep the whole ballot through one submission.

Which editions are confirmed, and when does the 2026 window run?

Editions on file

Two editions of Best of Peoria are confirmed, 2025 and 2026, and the publisher runs the program as an annual fixture for the city. The 2026 cycle is the live one, and its dates come straight from the legal notes printed on the ballot: "Voting starts on February 12, 2026 at noon and ends on March 10, 2026 at noon." Because the confirmed span covers two winters, anyone comparing cycles should lean on the current ballot wherever details shifted between runs.

That stretch defines the whole campaign calendar for a local business or organization: every reminder, share and daily return has to land inside it, and nothing written here extends it.

Beyond the dates, the printed page stays quiet in three spots. It does not enumerate the category roster; the list only takes shape inside the survey, so confirm on the live ballot each cycle. No nomination or entry round appears anywhere in the published material, and eligibility terms beyond the daily counting rule are left unstated. Anything a supporter needs past those three points, from tie-break handling to result announcements, sits outside the printed text as well.

How does a supporter cast a vote in Best of Peoria?

Taking part is a short sequence. A supporter loads the 2026 ballot, moves through the categories it presents in turn, and picks a favorite in each one worth answering. Where a personal favorite is missing from the pre-set list, the welcome text makes room: supporters are invited to "please feel free to write it in" using the space marked "Other."

The counting rule is printed plainly: "Limited one vote, per category, per IP address, per day." Read closely, a single household or office network casts one vote in each category per calendar day, and the allowance comes back fresh the next morning. That design favors steady participation over a solitary burst, and it quietly shapes every campaign mounted around this ballot.

The daily rhythm in practice

In practice that means a supporter who wants to back a restaurant on Monday, a salon on Tuesday and a charity on Wednesday can do all three without bending the rule, since each day stands alone. Nothing in the printed instructions mentions creating a profile or signing in beforehand; the sequence begins at the survey itself, so anyone arriving mid-window can participate at once, subject to the per-address reset.

How does Best of Peoria compare with other Arizona favorites ballots?

Best of Peoria keeps company with a wider set of Arizona community ballots. Nearby names include the 2026 Best of Sedona Kudos, the 2026 Best of Verde Valley and the 2026 Prescott Readers' Choice, each bound to its own community. The 2025 MVDN Best of, the 2025 Courier Cares Christmas Lighting Contest and A Taste of AZ People's Choice Award round out the group.

Three traits set the Peoria ballot apart. Its reach spans restaurants, businesses and organizations at once rather than a single niche. Its write-in door, the space marked "Other," lets unlisted favorites gather support instead of waiting for a future cycle. And its counting rule, a fresh allowance per address each day, rewards persistence in a way a one-time vote does not. The city of Peoria anchors all of it, giving the paper's readership a ballot that mirrors its own main street.

What builds lasting daily support in this ballot?

This ballot pays for persistence. Since each address regains its allowance every calendar day, a candidate's strongest asset is a loop that brings the same people back day after day throughout the window.

Practical moves follow from the rulebook. Ask staff, regulars and neighbors to vote daily rather than once. Put the reminder where Peoria customers already look, on a receipt, a countertop notice or a social post. Confirm the business's listing is spelled right, or supply it through the "Other" write-in so supporters searching for it find something to select. None of that bends the printed terms; all of it works with them.

Broader promotion tactics, from outreach to timing, are gathered in the guide to getting more votes online, and general context on purchased support sits on the buying votes online page. Whatever mix a campaign chooses, the per-address reset remains the frame every tactic has to fit.