Arkansas Times Readers' Choice: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Arkansas Times Readers' Choice programme?

The Arkansas Times Readers' Choice Awards carry the masthead of the Arkansas Times, a newspaper published at arktimes.com and rooted in Arkansas. The programme follows the reader-ballot model common among regional publishers: the paper invites its audience to name the local businesses and institutions they rate highest, then presents the outcomes in a themed issue. Reach is statewide rather than tied to a particular town, and the paper frames the current cycle as its 46th annual Readers Choice Awards.

The ballot sits inside a wider editorial lineup the site advertises around it: an Arkansas blog, food and culture coverage, issue-driven reporting, and annual guides running from the College Guide 2026 and the Foodie Guide 2026 through the Central Arkansas Guide 2025-2026 and the Nurses Guide 2025. Readers' Choice is the piece of that lineup that hands the pen to the audience.

Sponsorship is explicit: the announcement names Ben E. Keith as the sponsor of the 46th annual round. Balloting runs on the paper's own website instead of an outside polling service, and the working address for this cycle is arktimes.com/readers-choice-2026. Vertically it is a best-of exercise in the business sense, the sort of ballot where restaurants, retailers and service firms dominate the slate.

When does the Arkansas Times Readers' Choice nomination round run?

The dated trail for this programme covers 2025 and 2026. The paper treats the exercise as a yearly fixture; a retrospective on its own news desk calls it "our annual Readers Choice restaurant poll the gold standard among an array of latecomers by other publications." On that footing the next cycle would land in 2027.

The current year is anchored around the form as well: the ballot page's own title carries 2026, and the site's copyright line matches it. Dates attach to the nomination stage. The nomination round for the February 2026 issue opens on October 20th and closes on November 8th, with nominations feeding the issue published that February. Nothing past the nomination stage carries an announced date, so the November 8th close is the firm deadline the paper has actually printed.

The announcement leaves several elements unstated: the ballot's category roster, any per-person submission rule, and eligibility terms for nominees or voters. The paper has printed none of those alongside its call for nominations; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How does a supporter nominate on the Readers' Choice ballot?

Nominating is a straightforward web exercise. A reader loads the Readers' Choice 2026 page on arktimes.com while the round is open, between October 20th and November 8th, works through the categories the form presents, enters a favourite Arkansas business against each entry worth backing, and submits before the close on November 8th. Everything happens in the browser; the announcement points to no print form and no mailed entry.

A couple of practical points follow from the notice itself. No registration step is described, so reaching the form needs no advance signup. And no submission cadence is spelled out, so anybody planning repeat visits across the window should read the instructions displayed on the form rather than assume a daily rhythm.

Around the form, the page carries the site's standard furniture: subscription offers, a sign-in link, a search box and section menus spanning news, food and culture, plus the paper's guide series. The footer bears a Powered by Newspack credit for the underlying publishing setup. None of that changes the task, which stays a matter of naming favourites before the window shuts.

The notice also addresses businesses directly, urging nominated firms to boost awareness of their standing while the round runs. That wording signals the paper expects organised campaigns, not purely casual traffic, to move the tally.

Where does this ballot sit among Arkansas reader polls?

Reader ballots are crowded ground in this state, and the neighbours make the contrast easy to draw. The Arkansas Country Music Awards and the ARKAST Awards lean musical. The Ay Restaurant Poll sticks to dining. The Ays Cutest Pet Contest is pure lighthearted balloting. Beyond the single-topic surveys, the Best of the Best 2026 from the Russellville Courier and the Best of the Grand Prairie from the Stuttgart Daily Leader serve town-and-county audiences, one anchored to Russellville and the other to Stuttgart and the Grand Prairie farming region.

Set against those, this programme's markers are specific. It is the sibling anchored to a statewide newspaper masthead with a long unbroken run of cycles behind it. It wires its outcome to a named monthly issue instead of a stand-alone ceremony. And it carries a headline commercial sponsor, Ben E. Keith, printed in the announcement itself.

Then there is the housemate: Arkansas Times also produces Best of Arkansas, a separate reader ballot under the same masthead. Shared publisher, shared state, distinct ballot, so a business watching its standing should check each programme on its own page.

How can a nominated business rally support during the round?

The paper's own notice hands nominated businesses their cue: boost awareness while the round runs. That fits the mechanic. Because nominations shut on November 8th and the February issue waits on the tally, every useful move happens inside the window.

Ground-level work for a nominated firm means posting the ballot address to customers early, asking regulars to name the business under its categories, and reminding people before the deadline rather than after. The paper's framing suggests it anticipates exactly this kind of campaigning.

For anyone weighing outside assistance, the broader tactics sit in the site's votes guide, and the award-ballot service page describes what purchased support involves. Even a well-run effort cannot promise a result on a public ballot; the paper's form decides what counts.