Driggs Scarecrow Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Driggs Scarecrow Contest and who runs it?

The Downtown Driggs Association stages the Driggs Scarecrow Contest in downtown Driggs, Idaho, and hosts the ballot on its own website at downtowndriggs.org rather than on a polling network operated by somebody else. The association keeps its physical base at 91 East Little Avenue in Driggs, and the contest is one item on a civic calendar that also carries downtown events, beautification work and a business directory.

On the page, the organizer describes the town core filling with "wonderfully weird, wildly creative, and hilarious scarecrows" and calls the event "more than prize money and bragging rights," pitching it as a reason to spend time on the sidewalk. Entries come from local organizations: the page counts 52 businesses and nonprofits among the builders in the round before the current one. Because the exhibits stand on the street with a code on each post, the vote lives half outdoors and half online, which separates it from publisher-run reader ballots decided entirely on a screen.

Classified as a best-of style community award, it sits closer to a neighborhood celebration than to a media ranking, and everything on this page traces back to the association's own contest page and to local coverage of the event. The table below pulls the identifying details into one place.

When does Driggs Scarecrow Contest voting open and close?

The 2026 schedule on the association's page is unusually complete for a small-town vote. Registration closes September 24. Builds must be installed by October 5. Community voting runs October 8 through 31. Winners are announced November 10, and scarecrows come down by November 15. A community raffle resolves the same day: the association says the raffle winner will be named November 10 alongside the winning scarecrows.

Beyond that printed grid, several details stay open. Prize amounts and category names do not appear on the page. The clock time at which the ballot shuts on October 31 is likewise unstated. On the program's future, one line settles it: This is the first confirmed edition; whether it returns next year is not yet published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How does a supporter vote for a Driggs scarecrow?

The mechanic has two doors. In person, the association invites people to take a Scarecrow Stroll through downtown during the voting stretch, check out this year's creations, and vote for favorites right at each install by scanning the QR code attached to the scarecrow. Remotely, the same choices sit behind the link posted on the contest page, so a supporter who cannot walk the blocks can still reach the ballot from the organizer's site.

Etiquette comes from local coverage rather than from a printed rule sheet: a Buckrail report on the contest says one voting ballot is allowed per person and urges voters to mark every category before submitting. Neither the contest page nor that coverage describes a login step, an age limit or a device restriction for Driggs voters.

The practical reading is simple. Walk the stroll if you can, judge the builds in person, and expect your ballot to cover the whole field rather than a single favorite. Because the code sits on the exhibit itself, judging and voting happen in the same glance, and a builder's display does double duty as its own campaign sign. Supporters who miss the stroll window lose both doors at once, since the online ballot rides the same October stretch.

How does the Driggs ballot sit beside Idaho's other public votes?

Idaho's public-vote landscape leans heavily on regional reader ballots: Best of Canyon County, Best of Greater Idaho Falls, Best of Magic Valley Readers' Choice, Best of North Idaho, Boise Favorites and the Boise Area Parade of Homes all ask readers to rank businesses or projects across a wide area. The Driggs Scarecrow Contest shares the best-of label but works on a different scale and sense.

Its electorate is whoever walks a handful of blocks of one small downtown between October 8 and 31, and its nominees are yard-size sculptures rather than restaurants, clinics or contractors. A reader comparing Best of Greater Idaho Falls with the Driggs ballot is weighing a citywide consumer survey against a street-level art vote. The Parade of Homes ballot, by comparison, asks supporters to judge finished construction projects, and the reader-choice polls hand the whole field to a publication's audience.

Driggs hands the field to whoever shows up on the sidewalk, and it is the only ballot of the group whose vote hangs on a physical QR scan at the nominee itself. That difference shapes campaigning too: visibility here means foot traffic past an install, not placement on a publication's nomination list, and the stroll matters as much as the tally.

How can a scarecrow builder strengthen support in this contest?

Because the vote is anchored to a physical install, the strongest lever a builder controls is what happens at the post: clear signage naming the business or nonprofit, a staff member ready to point customers to the code, and a reminder that the reported one-ballot-per-person custom makes every category mark count.

Timing matters as well. The ballot opens October 8 and closes October 31, so anything a builder plans should land inside that stretch rather than after the November 10 announcement. Pairing the stroll with the online door helps too, because supporters who hear about an entry after visiting can still find the ballot through the organizer's site.

The association publishes no guidance on outside vote support, so campaigns that want broader reach should start with techniques that apply to any public poll: how to get more votes online covers the fundamentals that transfer to a QR-based street ballot.