Delaware Online Voting Contests

302Sports.com Athlete of the Week

A weekly public fan vote covering every Delaware high school sport, all year, run by 302Sports.com, an independent Delaware prep sports outlet, and presented by Delaware Orthopaedic Specialists. Nominations go to [email protected] and voting closes Wednesday at 3 p.m. This is a separate program from Delaware Online and WDEL's own athlete-of-the-week polls.

Delaware High School Athlete of the Week

Statewide Delaware · Delaware Online / The News Journal (Gannett / USA TODAY Network)

Free weekly fan poll at delawareonline.com, presented by Delaware Orthopaedic Specialists, covering every DIAA-sanctioned sport across all three seasons. Voting runs Monday through Thursday with no account or cap. Run by Delaware Online / The News Journal (Gannett / USA TODAY Network); winner published Friday.

Delaware High School Player of the Year

Statewide Delaware · High School on SI / SBLive (Sports Illustrated)

Annual statewide fan-vote award at si.com/high-school/delaware (High School on SI / SBLive), crowning Delaware's top prep football player each season. No vote cap, free to participate. Derian Cunningham of Middletown High School won the 2024 edition with 27,027 votes.

Delaware Online Football Athlete of the Week

Statewide Delaware · Delaware Online / USA TODAY Network Delaware

Delaware Online / USA TODAY Network Delaware's weekly fall fan vote for DIAA football standouts, run separately from the outlet's multi-sport poll. Free, no account needed. The confirmed public record includes a Week 10 win for a Howard High School (Wilmington) nominee, announced via Delaware Online's Facebook page rather than a searchable archive.

Delaware Online Football Athlete of the Week

Delaware Online's football-specific weekly fan vote, running Weeks 1–13 of the fall season through the DIAA championships. Separate from the multi-sport Athlete of the Week poll. No account required, unlimited votes per device, closes Thursday — winner announced Friday by The News Journal.

Delaware Online Winter Athlete of the Week

Statewide Delaware · Delaware Online / USA TODAY Network Delaware

Free winter-season fan vote run by Delaware Online / USA TODAY Network Delaware, embedded in the outlet's High School Sports section. Facebook confirmed one edition as the season's final winter Athlete of the Week poll, basketball-primary. No account needed; per-device cap and close time for that edition aren't restated, so the live post governs.

Delmarva Now Athlete of the Week (Southern Delaware)

Southern Delaware / Delmarva Peninsula · Delmarva Now (USA TODAY Network)

The free weekly fan poll at delmarvanow.com covering Southern Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland, branded the "EZ Cash of Delaware, Inc. Athlete of the Week." Nominations go to Delmarva Now's sports desk by Sunday evening, voting opens Monday morning and closes Wednesday at 3:00 p.m., and the winner is announced in a follow-up article. Run by Delmarva Now, part of the USA TODAY Network, this is a separate program from the statewide Delaware Online poll.

DSBA Delaware Athlete of the Year

Statewide Delaware · Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association (DSBA); Newark Post Online

Annual honor from the Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association (DSBA) naming a statewide Athlete of the Year for boys and girls across every sport, plus six All-State teams spanning three sports. Newark Post Online (newarkpostonline.com) published the 2025 results; DSBA's own membership, not a public ballot, decides the honorees.

DSBA Delaware Basketball Player of the Year

Statewide Delaware · Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association (DSBA)

Annual honor from the Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association (DSBA) naming a statewide Basketball Player of the Year for boys and girls. The 2025 cycle recognized Ursuline Academy's girls program and Sanford School's boys program; DSBA posts results at desports.org/dsba-awards/, though the ballot process itself is only lightly documented.

SI Delaware High School Boys Basketball Athlete of the Week

Statewide Delaware · High School on SI / Sports Illustrated (SBLive Sports network)

A winter, boys-basketball-specific edition of High School on SI's Delaware Athlete of the Week franchise at si.com/high-school/delaware, inferred from the same hub's confirmed fall football ballot and the network's pattern of running sport-specific editions in other states. No dated boys-basketball post independently confirms a cadence or close day for Delaware yet.

SI Delaware High School Football Athlete of the Week

Statewide Delaware · High School on SI / Sports Illustrated (SBLive Sports network)

Weekly fall fan vote for Delaware prep football, hosted by Sports Illustrated's High School on SI network at si.com/high-school/delaware. The football-specific format follows the same organizer's confirmed pattern in other states; Delaware's own per-device cap and close day are not independently verified. Free to vote, no account required.

SI Delaware High School Girls Basketball Athlete of the Week

Statewide Delaware · High School on SI / Sports Illustrated (SBLive Sports network)

A winter, girls-basketball-specific edition of High School on SI's Delaware Athlete of the Week franchise, inferred from si.com/high-school/delaware's confirmed fall football ballot and the network's habit of running sport-specific editions elsewhere. No dated girls-basketball post has surfaced yet, so the edition's existence, cap, and close day for Delaware remain unconfirmed.

SI Delaware High School Softball Athlete of the Week

Statewide Delaware · High School on SI / Sports Illustrated (SBLive Sports network)

A spring, softball-specific edition of High School on SI's Delaware Athlete of the Week franchise at si.com/high-school/delaware, inferred from the hub's confirmed fall football ballot and the SI network's habit of extending coverage into softball season elsewhere. No dated Delaware softball post has surfaced yet.

SI National Boys Athlete of the Week: Delaware Nominees

Statewide Delaware · High School on SI / Sports Illustrated (SBLive Sports network) — national platform

A weekly, nationwide fan vote from High School on SI (Sports Illustrated) at si.com/high-school: Delaware boys join nominees from all 50 states on one combined ballot, not a Delaware-only poll. Free, no fixed per-voter cap, only automated votes barred. Exact close time lives on the current week's post.

Star Health / Delaware SportsZone Athlete of the Week (WDEL)

A free weekly fan vote at wdel.com/sports/high-school/athlete-of-the-week/, branded the "Star Health / Delaware SportsZone Athlete of the Week" and run by WDEL 101.7 FM, part of Audacy. Covers football, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, and cross country. No account is needed; no vote cap or close time is published, so confirm both on the live post.

Best of Delaware

Delaware Today Magazine's statewide readers-choice ballot spanning 240+ consumer and business categories, run in two rounds each year and capped off by the Best of Delaware Party at Chase Center in Wilmington.

Cape Gazette Battle of the Bartenders

Cape Region (Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, Milton) · Cape Gazette

Annual 16-bartender bracket fan-vote run by the Cape Gazette across Delaware's Cape Region, Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, and Milton. Four rounds, vote once per day, hosted on the SecondStreetApp platform, with the winner featured on the cover of The Cape Current.

CommunityVotes Wilmington

Metroland Media's annual open public vote for Wilmington-area local businesses, spanning 120-plus categories at wilmingtonde.communityvotes.com, confirmed active for the 2025 and 2026 cycles.

Delaware Gazette 2026 Readers' Choice

Delaware, Ohio · Delaware Gazette

The Delaware Gazette's 2026 Readers' Choice is an open online vote for local businesses in Delaware, Ohio, roughly 100 categories strong, run by the county-seat newspaper north of Columbus rather than by any publication covering the coastal state that shares its name.

Delaware Gazette Readers' Choice

The Delaware Gazette's annual Readers' Choice ballot, run from delgazette.com in Delaware, Ohio rather than the U.S. state of Delaware, reached its 17th edition in 2025 and continued into 2026, though the paper has not published its category list, vote cap, or a public results archive for this guide.

Delaware HBA Parade of Homes

Home Builders Association of Delaware's annual Parade of Homes, run through hbade.org and confirmed active via HBADE's own Facebook page as of June 2026. No public category list, vote mechanic, or fixed dates are confirmed here; check hbade.org directly each cycle before promoting an entry.

Delaware Online Readers' Choice

The News Journal's annual statewide readers' choice vote for Delaware's local restaurants, salons, and contractors, run through delawareonline.com and amplified on Facebook rather than a standalone ballot site.

Delaware State Employee Art Exhibition

The Delaware State Employee Art Exhibition is run by the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency whose home base is Dover, Delaware. Its 2024 People's Choice voting window ran February 22 to March 22, 2024. Confirmed editions sit in 2024 and 2025, and the exhibition's own booklet places its beginnings in 2012. This page sets out the history and the mechanics as they are published.

First State Favorites 2026 Showcase

First State Favorites 2026 Showcase is a best-of ballot for the Wilmington, Delaware market, produced by The News Journal - Wilmington and carried on Second Street. Local businesses sit on a public ballot and readers decide the results. The 2026 edition accepted votes from June 16 through July 1, 2026, and that ballot has now closed. Editions are also confirmed for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, which makes this a returning statewide favorites program rather than a new experiment.

First State Favorites Community's Choice Awards

YourChoiceAwards' annual First State Favorites Community's Choice Awards, voted at yourchoiceawards.com/dover/, covering businesses across central, south, and north Dover rather than one statewide Delaware ballot. Confirmed facts stop at the three-zone structure and the annual cycle; category list, vote cap, and exact dates should be checked on the live site each cycle.

Out & About Magazine Community Awards

Out & About Magazine, published monthly in Wilmington by TSN Publishing, runs an annual community awards feature at outandaboutnow.com. A Yelp listing updated in May 2026 confirms the program is still active. Unlike Delaware's single-ballot sites, the exact nomination and voting steps live inside the magazine's own editorial calendar.

Sophia’s Grace Foundation’s “Snouts and Shoots” Calendar Contest

Sophia’s Grace Foundation runs the “Snouts and Shoots” Calendar Contest as an online photo fundraiser on GoGo Photo Contest. The ballot lives at gogophotocontest.com/sophiasgracefoundation. The 2024 cycle ran the whole month of September, opening at 12:00 AM Eastern Time on Sunday, September 1, 2024 and closing at 9:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday, September 30, 2024. The photo with the most votes earns the cover of the 12-month 2025 SGF Calendar. Entrants pay $20 to enter and supporters pay $1 per vote, with a minimum of 5 votes.

The EZ Cash of Delaware, Inc Athlete of the Week

Delmarva Now runs this weekly high school athlete poll, sponsored by EZ Cash of Delaware, Inc, on Crowdsignal at poll.fm. Ballots have run in 2025 and 2026, with a fresh poll published every week of the season. Voting opens each Monday morning and closes each Thursday at 3 p.m., after nominations close on Sunday at 8 p.m. The most recent window on file, May 18-24, shows the poll closed.

The News Journal Next Delaware Student of the Week

The News Journal, the Delaware newspaper behind Delaware Online, runs the Next Delaware Student of the Week vote on Crowdsignal at poll.fm. It is a public recognition ballot for Delaware high school students, with seasons confirmed in 2024 and 2025 and ballots falling between October and May. Each weekly round's opening and closing times are not announced ahead of the poll going live, so readers watch the newspaper's coverage directly.

Who is your pick for the Delaware Online Athlete of the Week

Delaware Online asks readers each week to name Delaware's top high school athlete on a Crowdsignal ballot hosted at poll.fm. Ballots run Monday through Thursday with winners announced on Friday, and confirmed seasons cover 2024, 2025 and 2026. The fall 2026 window opens September 14 and closes September 17, with unlimited free voting for anyone who visits the ballot.

News Journal Cutest Babies & Kids Photo Contest

Wilmington · The News Journal (Gannett)

One confirmed edition, 2026, backs the News Journal Cutest Babies & Kids Photo Contest, a public photo vote The News Journal in Wilmington runs on delawareonline.gannettcontests.com through the Second Street platform, presented by Coastal Medical Walk-In & Primary Care. The confirmed 2026 voting window opened August 3 and runs through October 6. Past that window, the live ballot itself is what actually settles any category list or vote cap, confirmed fresh each cycle.