Best of the West 2026 (gjsentinel): How Voting Works & How to Win

Who votes in Best of the West and why the ballot matters

Best of the West is a community readers' choice program, which means the outcome is decided entirely by members of the public rather than by a judging panel. The people who shape it are Daily Sentinel readers and Grand Junction shoppers: customers who already have a favorite taco spot, plumber, barber or car dealer in the Grand Junction area and want that business recognized on a public ballot.

That audience explains the stakes. For a Western Colorado business, a strong showing is social proof that comes from paying customers instead of an ad buy, and the Daily Sentinel brand gives the result local weight a national list cannot match. Winners and finalists use the recognition in storefronts, advertising and social media for the rest of the year, which is why the ballot draws a competitive push from businesses across the market each season.

Within this site's own classification the contest is a best-of award: an award-style format where the field is made up of local businesses rather than people, photos or creative entries. It runs on Second Street, the platform many US newspapers use for readers' choice ballots, and Grand Junction Media holds the organizer account. Voting is free for supporters; no paid voting tier exists on the ballot.

Because support is public, a business's result tracks how well it mobilizes its own customers during the roughly ten-week window. That is the dynamic this page describes, and it is why the mechanics section below matters as much as the dates.

Dated facts: editions, the 2026 window and what is unpublished

The 2026 cycle opened on April 3, 2026 and closed on June 16, 2026, and the platform lists it as a combined nomination-and-voting ballot that is now closed. That single window is the one confirmed date range for the current edition: nominations and votes both happened inside it, with no separate entry round before voting began.

The series is older than its 2026 title suggests. Confirmed editions run 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2026. Every season from 2018 through 2023 produced a ballot, then the timeline skips 2024 and resumes in 2025. Across that history the ballot has lived at a series of Second Street addresses, including a dailysentineldeals host for the 2019 editions, before settling on the gjsentinel subdomain used today. A 2027 edition would fit the pattern, but only the organizer decides when the next window opens.

The category structure is documented only on the ballot itself. Grand Junction Media has not published a category list, a group breakdown or a headcount of categories outside the live form, so a business planning its push reads the layout when the cycle opens rather than working from a printed roster.

Several other facts are simply not printed. There is no published list of winners, no nomination deadline distinct from the voting close, and no statement on how write-ins become nominees. The per-supporter vote cap, any rule about daily returns and eligibility requirements are likewise absent from the ballot page; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How a supporter votes on the gjsentinel ballot today

The literal mechanic is simple. A supporter opens the ballot at gjsentinel.secondstreetapp.com, lands on the combined nomination-and-voting form, and either writes a business in under a category or selects a nominee that is already listed. Because the two actions share one form and one window, a first-time visitor on day one of the cycle is nominating, while a visitor in mid-May is almost certainly voting for a business that already made the ballot.

Navigation follows the group structure printed on the form. The ballot is worked through in blocks: a supporter answers the dining categories, then moves to shopping, then services, casting votes where they have an opinion and skipping the rest. No login is stated as a requirement on the ballot page, and there is no fee to cast a vote.

The one behavior that matters most is timing. A combined nomination-and-voting window rewards early participation, because a business that accumulates write-ins in the first weeks sets the field everyone else votes against later. Supporters who intend to return should note the close date on the page they land on, since each season sets its own end point and the June 16 close belonged to the 2026 edition specifically.

Anything about repeat visits, verification or bulk voting is a rule question rather than a mechanical one. The ballot does not print a per-supporter limit, so the form's own wording at voting time is the guide. Supporters who want to understand what strengthens a business's position without touching the ballot's rules can read this guide to earning more votes, which covers organic outreach that works on any Second Street readers' choice format.

How Best of the West sits among Colorado's readers' choice ballots

Colorado has an unusually crowded best-of field, and Best of the West occupies a specific corner of it. It is the Grand Junction market's program, run by the Western Slope's daily newspaper, while the other confirmed Colorado readers' choice ballots on this site answer to different publishers and different cities.

The nearest siblings in coverage are Top of the Town run by 5280, and Best of Denver run by Westword. Both cover the Front Range urban market rather than Grand Junction, so a business on the Western Slope competes in a different, smaller and often tighter field here than it would in either Denver ballot. On a ballot with a deep category list, a niche business can dominate its lane in a way that is harder in a metro-wide contest.

Other in-state neighbours serve their own sub-markets: Best of NOCO for northern Colorado, Best of the Springs for the Springs market, Best of Summit County for the mountain counties and Best of the Boat for the Steamboat area. None of them overlap the Grand Junction audience that decides Best of the West.

What distinguishes this program within that set is its publisher's wider contest calendar. Grand Junction Media runs sweepstakes and photo promotions on the same Second Street host throughout 2026, so Best of the West is one item in a portfolio rather than a standalone effort. Its roughly ten-week spring window and its eight-year confirmed history make it the largest competitive readers' ballot attached to the Daily Sentinel brand.

Strengthening a business's position in Best of the West

Support in this ballot is earned through customers, and the format shapes when to ask. Because nomination and voting share the April-to-June window, the highest-value ask comes early: a business that prompts its regulars to write it in during the first weeks of the cycle anchors its own position before the field hardens. Later in the window the ask changes to a plain vote for a name that is already on the ballot, which is a smaller step for a customer to take.

Precision helps. With a category list this deep, a generic "vote for us" message leaves customers to find their own way through the groups. Naming the exact category, linking straight to the ballot page and giving an example of what to type removes that friction. In-store signage, receipts, email lists and social posts all work as reminders; what matters is that the ask names the program and the category.

Grand Junction Media has not printed any statement about outside voting help or bulk voting for this ballot. The organizer's terms govern every nomination, and the safe assumption for any business is that manipulation wording, if it exists, lives on the ballot itself. Nothing on this page makes any promise about what purchased support would achieve; readers weighing that route can review the market context at buying votes online and the service detail at award contest votes, while remembering that the organizer's rules, not this page, set what is allowed in Best of the West.