Best of Santa Cruz County: How Voting Works & How to Win

Good Times runs Best of Santa Cruz County, a county-wide readers' poll

Best of Santa Cruz County is a readers'-choice ballot for businesses, people and places across Santa Cruz County, California, published by the alt-weekly newspaper Good Times at goodtimes.sc. The masthead on Good Times' own Best of Santa Cruz County pages carries the paper's name and a Weeklys copyright line, tying the ballot to the same publisher behind Good Times' news, arts and event coverage for the county.

This is a classic best-of reader poll: rather than one winner in one field, Santa Cruz County residents pick favorites across a spread of local categories. Good Times' own pages have carried category names such as Best Locally Owned Business, Best Beer Selection and Best Act of Kindness on past editions, though the paper does not publish that list as a fixed, dated roster. A name that appeared on one year's ballot is not a promise it returns on the next one.

Five dated editions, and what Good Times still doesn't print

Good Times has published a dated edition of Best of Santa Cruz County in 2013, 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2026, five confirmed years on the paper's own pages. That is not the same as a claim the ballot also ran every year in between; it is what Good Times' own titled pages show, no more and no less. Good Times built its newest, 2026 edition around a food-and-drink theme, distinct from the editors'-picks framing its 2025 predecessor carried.

Good Times' Best of Santa Cruz County page stays quiet about the cycle ahead: exactly when nominations or voting open and close for the next round is not stated anywhere Good Times has published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. Nor does a Santa Cruz County vote cap, a daily voting limit or an eligibility requirement appear anywhere Good Times has made public; confirm on the live ballot each cycle for any of the three.

How a Santa Cruz County reader actually casts a vote

Good Times runs Best of Santa Cruz County directly on its own site rather than through a separate voting platform, so the ballot itself lives at goodtimes.sc alongside the paper's news and arts coverage. A Santa Cruz County reader who wants to take part opens that page, works through whatever categories the live ballot currently lists, and casts a pick in each one that matters to them.

Nothing Good Times has published breaks that process into a separate nomination round ahead of an open vote, the way some California best-of polls are structured; the page simply presents the ballot itself. Good Times draws its ballot from across the whole county rather than a single town within it, so a business anywhere in Santa Cruz County competes on the same page as one from any other part of it.

Because Good Times keeps the mechanic this plain, on-page picks rather than a separate account or app, the practical work for a nominee is getting real Santa Cruz County readers to actually open goodtimes.sc and choose their name, more than once, across whatever window the paper leaves the ballot live.

Where this ballot sits among California's other reader polls

Good Times is one of several publishers running a county- or region-level readers' poll across California, and Best of Santa Cruz County sits beside a handful of them rather than standing alone. None of these programs share a ballot, a judging pool or a results page with Good Times' own county-wide vote.

A Santa Cruz County business entering both this ballot and a neighboring county's poll is signing up for two different rulebooks at once; a strong showing on Good Times' own page carries no weight toward Best of Marin or Best of Silicon Valley, since Marin County and Silicon Valley each tally their own results independently of goodtimes.sc. Best of Orange County and Best of Central Valley Business work the same way: Orange County and the Central Valley each settle their own winners, apart from Santa Cruz County's own count.

Building real support for a Best of Santa Cruz County nomination

Because Good Times puts the entire ballot on one public page rather than gating it behind an account, the practical lever for a Santa Cruz County nominee is turnout: getting people who already know the business, the volunteer or the nonprofit to actually visit goodtimes.sc and vote, more than once across the window the ballot stays open. Good Times' own page does not spell out a stance on automated traffic or purchased support, so its ballot carries no printed rule either allowing or barring it beyond ordinary conduct.

Real, repeated outreach, a text, a social post, an ask at the counter, tends to outlast a single push made near a deadline. Building real momentum for an online ballot walks through tactics that fit a plain, page-based vote like this one.