Bestof2022 (independent): How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Best of Santa Barbara Readers' Poll is

The Bestof2022 Readers' Poll is the best-of program run by the Santa Barbara Independent, the alternative newspaper serving Santa Barbara, California. The organizer describes Best Of Santa Barbara as "our annual poll", a readers' choice ballot in which the paper's audience decides which local businesses and favorites deserve the title in each category. The vertical is a classic best-of competition: the market's readers nominate, then vote, and the winners are the names the community itself chose.

The ballot is hosted on the newspaper's own domain at https://www.independent.com/bestof2022/, which makes the paper both the publisher and the host of the program. That matters for supporters because every rule, date and category list a reader needs is published by one organization rather than split across a third-party voting platform and a promoter.

The reach of the ballot is unusually broad for a single-market readers' poll. The organizer's FAQ for businesses puts it plainly: readers tell the paper "who is the best across many categories". A ballot that wide covers far more of local life than a typical single-industry contest, from food and drink to services, and it gives a Santa Barbara business many different routes onto the ballot.

Facts at a glance

The dated record for this ballot

The confirmed edition years for this program are 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2026. The 2022 edition is the one whose ballot text is quoted here, and it carried the title Best of Santa Barbara 2022 Readers' Poll. The gap between the 2022 ballot and the 2026 edition means the intervening years cannot be described either way from the material in hand; the editions that can be named are the six listed above.

The 2022 cycle ran in two phases with published dates. The nomination period ran from June 9 to July 6, during which readers determined who deserved to be a nominee in each category by nominating their favorites. The voting period followed: voting was open from August 4 to August 31. Both dates come from the 2022 ballot page itself, so they describe that edition and not necessarily the current one.

On recurrence, the organizer's own FAQ for businesses answers directly: "What is Best Of Santa Barbara? is our annual poll". That makes this a yearly program by the organizer's own description, and the next edition after the confirmed 2026 run would fall in 2027. The organizer has not printed the nomination and voting dates for the current cycle on any page available here; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How a supporter votes in this poll

Voting in the Best of Santa Barbara Readers' Poll is a two-step affair across the cycle. First comes nomination: during the nomination window, readers nominate their favorites in each category, and those nominations determine the nominee list. Once the voting period opens, supporters return to the ballot and vote for their favorite nominee in the categories they care about.

One rule shapes every ballot submitted. The organizer's FAQ states it plainly: each voter is required to vote in a minimum number of categories for their votes to be counted. This is the single most important mechanic on the ballot, because a supporter who answers only a line or so has their ballot discarded entirely. A business mobilizing customers needs those customers to understand that a real ballot means a broad set of answers, not a single click.

The practical sequence for a supporter in the voting round is simple: open independent.com/bestof2022, work through a substantial share of the roster picking a favorite in each category, and submit before the published closing date, which in 2022 was August 31. The ballot is free to use, and the organizer has published no paid voting option; the program runs entirely on reader participation.

Because the poll is hosted on the newspaper's own domain rather than a third-party voting platform, the instructions a supporter sees come straight from the Santa Barbara Independent, and the live page is the authority on anything the FAQ leaves open.

How this ballot sits among California's best-of programs

California runs a dense field of readers' choice ballots, and this program is the Santa Barbara entry in it. Five sibling programs on this site cover other parts of the state: Best of Central Valley Business, Best of Marin, Best of Orange County, Best of San Diego & Best Restaurants, and Best of Silicon Valley. A sixth, Best of North State Community's Choice Awards, covers the state's far north.

What separates the Santa Barbara ballot from those neighbours is its publisher and its reach. Each of the others answers to a different organizer, while this one is run by an established alternative newspaper on its own domain. And few California best-of ballots publish a roster as wide as this one's, which spreads the competition across nearly every corner of local life rather than concentrating it in a handful of headline categories.

For a business deciding where to invest outreach effort, the practical difference is audience: this ballot reaches the Santa Barbara Independent's readership specifically, so support gathered from Santa Barbara customers counts in a poll those same readers are already following in print and online.

Strengthening support in the Santa Barbara readers' poll

The ballot's own structure tells a business where effort pays. Since every voter must meet the organizer's minimum number of answers for a ballot to count, the most valuable supporter is one who fills out a broad ballot, not one who votes on a single line. When asking customers to vote, say so explicitly: a half-filled ballot helps nobody.

Timing matters too. The 2022 cycle gave nominees a full month of voting, from August 4 to August 31, so a push that starts on day one has the whole window to work with while one that waits for the final week competes with every other late campaign. The organizer's FAQ for businesses is the place to check what the Santa Barbara Independent says about promotion and participation before a cycle begins.

As for outside help, the honest position is that the organizer's published FAQ does not address purchased votes one way or the other, so a business weighing that route should read the current ballot's own rules first and judge the risk for itself. A win in a readers' poll is never something any outside service can promise; what outreach, reminders and broad ballots deliver is more counted support, and our votes guide walks through the outreach methods that fit a poll like this one.