Readers Choice 2: How Voting Works & How to Win

Who votes in Readers Choice 2 and why the ballot matters

Readers Choice 2 is a ballot built for HAWAIʻI Magazine's own audience, and that audience is spread across the island groups the magazine covers: Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, Maui, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Hawaiʻi Island. The magazine's site organizes its coverage under those island headings, and the Readers Choice ballot speaks to the same readership. A supporter here is typically a resident or frequent visitor who already trusts the magazine's editorial voice and wants to see local favorites recognized.

That community shape is what separates this ballot from a national sweepstakes. The people voting are choosing among Hawaii coffee shops, beaches, hikes, plate lunch spots and similar local institutions, so a win carries weight with the exact customers a Hawaii business wants. The magazine frames the 2026 edition with a direct call to action on its own page, which tells supporters the vote is open and the organizer is actively promoting it.

For a business, the practical reading is that support has to come from people who care about Hawaii. A generic push from outside the state rarely matches how this ballot is consumed, because the results feed a magazine feature that local readers consult. The ballot's own terms keep entry free, with no purchase necessary, which keeps the barrier to participating low for every supporter.

The table below collects the program's identifying facts in one place.

The dated record: editions, deadlines and what the magazine has not printed

Editions of this Hawaii readers ballot are confirmed in 2021, 2022, 2025 and 2026. The magazine's own winners announcement for the current cycle describes the series as its 14th annual Readers' Choice Awards, which is the organizer's own framing of how long the tradition runs. The 2026 edition is the one whose ballot page is live, and its title on the magazine's site is 2026 Readers' Choice.

Two dated facts anchor the 2026 cycle. Voting ends at 11:59 p.m. (HST) on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, and the page states that the winner will be contacted by Jan. 5, 2026. Those are the only day-level dates the ballot page prints. The opening date for voting is not given at day level, and the page also stays silent on whether one person may vote more than once, on any cap, and on eligibility terms beyond one printed exclusion: employees of aio, Inc. and affiliated companies are not eligible to win. The page prints no day-level opening date, no repeat-voting rule and no eligibility terms beyond that exclusion; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Entry terms are otherwise simple. The page states that no purchase is necessary, which means a supporter never pays to participate, and a business never pays to be included. Between the December close and the January winner-contact date, the magazine handles results on its own schedule, and past cycles have produced a winners announcement on the same domain.

How a supporter votes on the 2026 Readers Choice ballot today

Supporters cast their picks directly on the magazine's own website. A supporter opens the Readers Choice 2 page at hawaiimagazine.com, where the magazine's own banner reads as a call to vote now in HAWAIʻI Magazine's 2026 Readers' Choice. Because the vote runs on the magazine's own domain rather than on a third-party polling service, everything a supporter needs, from the category list to the submit action, sits on that one page.

The categories visible on the page include phrases such as Best Coffee Shops, Best Beaches, Best Hikes, Best Loco Moco in Hawaiʻi, Best Plate Lunch Spots and Best Of Blogs. These are the phrases the page itself prints, and the live form is the authority on the complete set for the 2026 cycle. A supporter picks a favorite in each category they care about and submits; there is no nomination round described on the page and no separate platform stage.

Nothing on the page describes an account requirement, a login wall or a payment step, and the no-purchase rule reinforces that the vote is free. What the page also does not describe is any limit on repeat visits, so a supporter who wants to return on another day has no printed rule either permitting or forbidding it. The closing time of 11:59 p.m. HST on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025 is the hard edge of the window, after which submitted picks stand and the magazine moves toward contacting winners by Jan. 5, 2026.

How Readers Choice 2 sits beside Hawaii's other readers ballots

Hawaii has an unusually dense cluster of readers-choice balloting, and this program is one of several on the same island scene. HAWAIʻI Magazine itself runs related programs, including the HAWAIʻI Magazine Readers' Choice Awards and a Big Island edition of the same awards, plus Best of Hawaii, which the same publisher operates. A reader who lands on this page while hunting for one of those should check which ballot they actually mean, because the names are close and the ballots are separate.

Beyond the magazine's own family, the state carries ballots from other organizers: the AIA Honolulu People's Choice Awards, which puts architecture to a public vote; the Hawaii Business Magazine People's Choice Award, aimed at the business community; and the Hawaii Home + Remodeling Readers' Choice Awards, which serves the home-improvement trade. Every one of these Hawaii ballots answers to a different publisher with its own rules, so a strategy that fits one does not automatically transfer.

What makes Readers Choice 2 distinct within this cluster is its breadth. Where the remodeling ballot is trade-specific and the AIA ballot is profession-specific, this one spans everyday Hawaii life, from plate lunches to hikes, which is why its supporter base is the general magazine readership rather than a single industry. Its host is also distinctive: the vote runs on the magazine's own site, not on an external polling platform, so the ballot page and the organizer's brand are the same surface.

Related Hawaii ballots worth comparing:

• HAWAIʻI Magazine Readers' Choice Awards
• HAWAIʻI Magazine Readers' Choice Awards, Big Island
• Best of Hawaii
• AIA Honolulu People's Choice Awards
• Hawaii Business Magazine People's Choice Award
• Hawaii Home + Remodeling Readers' Choice Awards

Strengthening support for a Hawaii readers ballot the honest way

Support on this ballot comes from people who already have an opinion about Hawaii places, so the strongest push is a direct ask to the customers who know your business. Share the ballot link, name the category you are in, and give a reason tied to the magazine's readership: a win here is a recommendation printed by a publication those customers already read. Because the ballot closes at 11:59 p.m. HST on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, an ask made early in the window has room to work, while a last-day ask depends entirely on catching people at the right moment.

The organizer's printed terms matter here too. Entry needs no purchase, and the only printed exclusion from winning is for employees of aio, Inc. and affiliated companies, so the field is ordinary businesses and ordinary supporters. The magazine has not printed a rule on repeat voting, which means the safe course is to ask supporters plainly rather than to engineer volume, and to treat the live page's terms as the final word. For a fuller walkthrough of outreach that fits a public readers vote, see our votes guide, and for the rules question behind any outside help, see the legality page.