117 contests with public online voting in Illinois — Athlete of the Week and more. Real, paced votes; honest guidance on each contest's rules.
DeKalb · Dekalb Daily Chronicle
Unlike several other Illinois newspapers running their own separate athlete-of-the-week ballots, the Daily Chronicle runs DeKalb County Athlete of the Week at dekalbdailychronicle.secondstreetapp.com, now in its third confirmed season, 2024-25 through 2026-27. The live vote is Week 3, open September 13 through September 15, 2026, and the page states voting ends Tuesday at noon. A category list and any per-voter limit stay unpublished; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
Decatur · Herald & Review
The Herald & Review's weekly fan-vote poll covering high school sports across central Illinois — Decatur, Bloomington-Normal, Mattoon, Charleston, and the smaller programs between them. It closes Monday at 10 a.m. CT, earlier than most weekly polls, and results post Monday afternoon.
The Herald-News (Shaw Local, Joliet/Will County) runs a weekly multi-sport fan-vote poll for area high schools: readers nominate, then vote, unlimited times per person, until the poll closes at noon on Sunday.
Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)
Statewide Illinois fan-vote award at si.com, published weekly by High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive) across all three IHSA sports seasons. No vote cap; polls close Sunday at 11:59 p.m. CT. Covers 800-plus IHSA member schools statewide.
Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)
Annual statewide Illinois fan-vote award at si.com, run by High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive) at the end of each sport season. One sport-specific POY ballot per season; no per-vote cap for human voters; automated scripts disqualify a campaign's total. Covers all 800-plus IHSA member schools statewide.
Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)
Single combined statewide fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning one Illinois boys basketball standout each March at the close of the IHSA postseason. It is the only SI Illinois sport ballot that skips a per-classification split. No account is needed to cast a vote.
Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)
Per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a standalone Class 1A winner, the smallest-enrollment tier on the state's eight-class football ladder, with seven larger classes above it and none below. No account or sign-up step sits between a click and a vote.
Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)
Free per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a standalone Class 4A winner one rung below the eight-class ladder's exact middle, drawing largely from Illinois's downstate and smaller-suburban football programs. The ballot doesn't ask for a login before a click gets counted.
Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)
Per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a standalone Class 5A winner — the exact midpoint of the state's eight-way football Player of the Year ladder, with four smaller classes below it and three larger ones above. No account or sign-up step sits between a click and a vote.
Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)
Per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a standalone Class 6A winner in the state's eight-way football Player of the Year format — the tier that produced back-to-back title-game rematches between East St. Louis and Fenwick. No account or sign-up step sits between a click and a vote.
Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)
Per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a separate Class 7A winner, the tier sitting directly beneath Illinois's largest-enrollment class, inside the state's eight-way football Player of the Year format. No sign-up step stands between a click and a counted vote.
Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)
Per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a separate Class 8A winner rather than folding the state's largest-enrollment programs into one combined ballot — the same class-by-class format SI uses for football POY coverage in Iowa, Minnesota, and Michigan. Casting a vote needs no sign-up step.
Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)
Annual single-sport fan vote run by High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive) at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning one Illinois football standout after IHSA's Class 1A-8A championships conclude. The ballot opens in late November or December and closes by early January; no account is required to cast a vote.
Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)
Annual statewide fan vote run by High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive) at si.com/high-school/illinois, honoring one IHSA girls basketball standout once the postseason concludes. The ballot runs inside a dated article rather than a standalone form. No account is needed, and the exact per-device cap isn't published for this specific vote.
Champaign · The News-Gazette
The News-Gazette weekly fan vote for standout Champaign-Urbana area high-school athletes — boys and girls polled separately each Monday, one vote per device, closing Thursday at noon. The per-device cap and midweek deadline make this the most time-compressed prep poll in Illinois.
Peoria · Peoria Journal Star (pjstar.com)
The Peoria Journal Star's weekly fan-vote award for the best prep athlete in the Peoria metro and central Illinois. CEFCU sponsors the poll; it runs boys and girls ballots simultaneously; and it closes Friday at noon -- not Sunday, not Monday. That Friday cutoff is the first thing to get right.
Rockford · Rockford Register Star
The Rockford Register Star's weekly fan-vote award covering high school athletes across the Rockford metro — multi-sport, year-round, capped at one vote per device per day, and decided Friday at noon. Nominations go to [email protected] by Monday morning.
Springfield · The State Journal-Register
Around Springfield, Illinois, The State Journal-Register runs a single preseason ballot naming a favorite among the area's high school girls soccer players before the season starts. Crowdsignal carries the ballot under the poll.fm address, with confirmed rounds in 2023 and 2025 and the most recent one falling in March. The newspaper has not printed a category list, a per-voter limit, or day-level dates for the ballot, and no separate promotional listing for it appears on the polling network either.
Springfield · The State Journal-Register
Springfield, Illinois's preseason football honor asks readers to pick the area's top player before the season kicks off, a ballot The State Journal-Register runs on Crowdsignal at poll.fm. That vote has landed twice, in 2023 and 2025, with the most recently posted ballot dated to August, the preseason itself. The poll draws its field from schools around Springfield, though no single roster is printed on the confirmed page. No exact voting window, category count, or per-voter rule is published for this ballot.
The State Journal-Register publishes The Volleyball Player of the Year Around Springfield, an Illinois volleyball fan ballot that Crowdsignal hosts at poll.fm/16301652. Two rounds are confirmed, 2023 and 2025, and the 2025 vote is calibrated to November by its poll.fm identifier. Day-level open and close dates, a vote-cap rule, and any 2026 round sit with the live ballot each cycle.
Three Central Illinois outlets run separate athlete polls in the same footprint: WCIA 3's weekly, every-sport ballot opens nominations each Wednesday, sits apart from a $1,500 annual scholarship award, and covers a defined multi-county broadcast area rather than the whole state.
Illinois pet owners nominate their dogs and cats for the Spokesdog and Spokescat titles in this fundraiser ballot run by Paws for a Cause Vet Care. The 2024 nomination and submission window opened at 12:00 AM Central Time on Tuesday, July 16, 2024 and closed at midnight on Friday, August 16, 2024. The ballot sits on GoGo Photo Contest, and editions are confirmed for 2023 through 2026.
Paws for a Cause Vet Care, a Naperville veterinary practice, runs the Ales for Tails Spokesdog & Spokescat Contest as a public fundraiser ballot on GoGo Photo Contest. The fundraiser ran in 2025 and again in 2026. The 2026 rules page prints a submission period of July 1 through July 31 and a voting period of August 1 through August 31, and every dollar donated counts as a vote.
A Kirksville business that wants votes in the 2025 Best of Kirksville ballot first needs to know what the ballot actually publishes. The Herald-Whig runs this best-of programme on Second Street, and its 2025 ballot accepted nomination and voting together from April 1 through June 1, 2025. The categories and the per-supporter rule are the two things a campaign cannot plan around until the live ballot is open, because the organizer has not printed them alongside the ballot itself. This page sets out what is confirmed, what is not, and how a supporter votes while the window is open.
The Heartland Choice Awards is a best-of business ballot run by The Herald-Whig, the newspaper publisher based in Quincy, Illinois. Its ballot is hosted on Second Street at whig.secondstreetapp.com. The 2025 edition opened for votes on May 5 and closed on July 19, and a 2026 edition is also confirmed. This page collects what is published about the program, what the organizer has not printed, and how a supporter takes part.
WSIL, the television station for the Harrisburg-Marion-Carbondale market in Illinois, runs the Viewers' Choice Awards as a supporter-voted best-of ballot on Second Street. Its two edition years on file are 2024 and 2025. The 2025 ballot ran from June 23 through September 15, 2025 and is now closed. The station leaves the category list and any vote limit off the published ballot; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
The Herald-Whig runs the 2026 Best of Sedalia ballot on Second Street. Voting in the 2026 edition ran June 15 through August 8, with the nomination-and-voting stretch listed from July 8 to the August 8 close. A 2025 edition is also confirmed on that shared domain. The category roster and any limit on repeat votes are absent from the listing, so a business checking its standing should read the ballot page directly.
The 2026 CIProud High School Mascot Bracket is a public-vote bracket run by WMBD-TV, the CBS-affiliated station serving Peoria, Illinois, and hosted on Second Street. Its confirmed voting window runs from August 17 to October 16, 2026, and a 2025 edition is also confirmed, so the bracket recurs. Unlike the broad readers-choice ballots in the same state, this one has a single theme: high school mascots. Rules, matchups and any vote limit are set by the station and appear on the live ballot page.
The Kane County Chronicle runs the Kane County Magazine Finest ballot on Second Street, open to businesses and organizations across Kane County, Illinois. The 2026 round takes votes from August 29 through September 14, 2026, and a 2025 edition ran on the same platform before it. The Chronicle has not printed a category list or a per-supporter rule on the ballot, so those points rest with the live form.
The Telegraph runs the 2026 Riverbend & Madison County Best of the Best as a public-vote ballot on Second Street. Confirmed editions ran from 2022 through 2026. The 2026 cycle runs September 10 through October 29. A nomination round from September 10 to September 19 opens the contest, and the organizer promotes the program through its own coverage each cycle.
BAGI's Parade of Homes includes a confirmed People's Choice Award, where the touring public votes for a favorite entered home alongside whatever judged categories the event runs that cycle. Separate, parallel Parade of Homes-style programs operate through other Illinois Home Builders Association chapters in Chicago-area suburbs, run independently of BAGI's own program and rules.
WLIQ, a Quincy, Illinois radio station, runs Best Breakfast In Quincy Illinois on kickam1530.com, its own domain. The ballot asks listeners a single question, who has the best breakfast in Quincy, and voting has fallen in November. Six cycles are confirmed: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2026. Daily dates, category details and per-supporter rules stay off the ballot page, so check the live poll before planning a push.
The Chicago Reader runs Best of Chicago itself, no syndication network, no chain ownership. Every category is decided by reader ballots, and the 2025 cycle stays open through December 31.
Naperville Magazine's reader poll across roughly 60 local categories, built on email-verified nominate-then-vote rounds and now in its 17th year.
Best of Phelps County 2026 is the readers choice ballot The Herald-Whig, the Quincy, Illinois newspaper, runs on the Second Street host. The 2026 voting window runs October 1 through December 1, 2026, and the paper also staged a 2025 edition. Support is local: readers pick the county's favorite businesses.
Best of Pulaski County 2026 is a readers-choice ballot for Pulaski County businesses, run by the Quincy, Illinois newspaper The Herald-Whig on the Second Street platform. Editions of the programme run in 2025 and 2026, and the 2026 promotion window is listed as October 1 through December 1, 2026. Category names, any voting limit and eligibility rules are not printed on the promotion listing, so check the ballot itself.
The Greater Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce invites neighbors and visitors to vote for their Ravenswood favorites on its own website. Only 2026 is a confirmed edition year. The ballot is open through Friday, October 30th, 2026, and the chamber says identifying information is used only to ensure a single vote is cast per person. Named categories include Favorite New Business, Favorite Neighborhood Staple and Favorite Wellness Provider.
Illinois Times' annual Best of Springfield readers poll spans more than 200 categories, and Best Donut pulled the highest voter engagement of the 2025 cycle. Results ran in the paper's October 30 issue, closed out with an in-person results party rather than a quiet online leaderboard.
Kane County, Illinois's Kane County Chronicle runs Best of the Fox at kanecounty.secondstreetapp.com through the Second Street platform. Six confirmed editions run 2020 and 2022 through 2026. The most recent voting stage ran February 19 through March 16, 2026. None of the six confirmed years has come with a published category roster or a stated ceiling on votes, leaving kanecounty.secondstreetapp.com as the only place either question gets answered once a new stage opens.
Best of the Fox is the Kane County Chronicle's readers' choice ballot for Kane County, Illinois, hosted on Second Street. Its 2026 voting window ran from February 19 through March 15, 2026, and supporters returned once per day, per category. Confirmed editions reach back to 2020, with the 2022 through 2026 runs following in succession.
Freeport, Illinois has a business awards ballot organized by the Gannett / USA TODAY Network paper there, carried by Your Choice Awards at yourchoiceawards.com/freeport/. The 2026 edition opened with a June nomination stage, moved into public voting August 7-21, 2026, and set its winners reveal for October 11, 2026. Confirmed runs cover 2025 and 2026, and the stated rule allows one vote per category each day while voting is open.
West Suburban Living Magazine's annual reader-vote ballot across 80-plus categories covering DuPage, Kane, Kendall, and Will County's western Chicago suburbs, now past its 17th year in print and online.
Attached to the Chicago Innovation Awards is a public-vote honor, the People's Choice Award, run by Chicago Innovation out of Chicago, Illinois. Balloting lives on the organizer's own website, and a confirmed edition ran in every year from 2020 through 2026. Nominations for the 2026 cycle closed on August 3, 2026, nominees gathered at a September celebration, and winners were honored at the November 17 ceremony. The organizer leaves the exact voting window dates, the ballot categories and the per-supporter rule off its pages.
Chicago Style Weddings' Best Of awards recognize wedding vendors, venues, photographers, and planners across the Chicago market through a nomination process blending reader input with the magazine's own industry judging. The program has run more than 30 years and publishes twice yearly. Exact voting weight and current dates sit at chicagostyleweddings.com.
WMBD-TV's CIProud brand runs the CIProud High School Mascot Bracket for Central Illinois on a Second Street voting bracket at wmbd-tv.secondstreetapp.com. Two editions are confirmed, 2025 and 2026, and the 2026 bracket is confirmed open August 17 through October 16. Each round pits one school mascot against another, and past what the current bracket page shows, confirm on the live ballot each cycle for round count, matchup list, or a per-voter limit.
Cicero, Illinois, a suburb just west of Chicago, hosts CommunityVotes Cicero, a neighbor-nominated business ballot run through a local CommunityVotes partner at cicero.communityvotes.com. Two editions are confirmed so far, 2022 and 2026, with the current nomination period open July 15 through November 8. Past that window, the site alone decides what its category list and per-voter rules end up being; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
CommunityVotes runs CommunityVotes Elgin, a best-of ballot where residents of Elgin, Illinois nominate and vote for the businesses, people and services they favor. The ballot lives on its own CommunityVotes site at elgin.communityvotes.com. The 2026 edition is live and the nomination period runs from July 2 to October 25. An earlier edition ran in 2025, so the programme recurs year to year.
CommunityVotes Joliet is the community voting awards ballot for Joliet, Illinois, run by CommunityVotes (local partner) on its own platform domain. Nominations for the 2026 cycle run from July 2 to October 25. The published timeline holds editions in 2025 and 2026. Voting dates and the category list go unpublished on the ballot page, so supporters and business owners should read the live site before planning a push.
CommunityVotes Naperville is a community-choice business ballot for Naperville, Illinois, run at naperville.communityvotes.com, where 2026 nominations stay open from July 2 to October 25. Past that window, the site does not publish a specific category breakdown or a per-voter limit; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
CommunityVotes Peoria IL runs a public business voting program at peoriail.communityvotes.com. It operates independently of YourChoiceAwards, the separate company behind the Peoria Journal Star's Community's Choice ballot, and no published category list, vote cap, or fixed calendar accompanies the confirmed operator name and URL.
CommunityVotes Rockford runs a business voting program at rockford.communityvotes.com, with a FAQ page confirmed live for the 2025 cycle. No published category list, vote cap, or fixed calendar accompanies the confirmed organizer name and URL, so the live site itself is the only real authority on this year's rules.
CommunityVotes Springfield IL runs a public business voting program at springfieldil.communityvotes.com. It operates separately from YourChoiceAwards' Springfield Community's Choice and Illinois Times' Best of Springfield, two other named local ballots, and no published category list, vote cap, or fixed calendar accompanies the confirmed operator name and URL.
Daily Herald's Readers' Choice awards, voted at readerschoice.dailyherald.com and live for the 2026 cycle, cover the paper's suburban Chicago footprint across Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and McHenry counties. Category list, cap, and close date aren't published beyond the live site each cycle.
Daily Journal's Reader's Choice is an annual best-of public vote run by the Daily Journal for Illinois. The 2026 round stayed open until January 18, 2026, and the previous winners list points to 2024. The ballot sits at the Daily Journal's Shaw Local page. Categories and vote limits are not published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
The Dekalb Daily Chronicle runs a weekly athlete ballot for DeKalb County, Illinois, hosted on Second Street. Week 3 of the 2026-27 season opens September 13 and closes September 15, 2026, with the ballot page stating voting ends Tuesday at noon. Unlike the statewide player-of-the-year ballots run by other Illinois publishers, this one resets every week during the school year, so the window a reader faces is always short.
The Journal Star invites readers across its Illinois coverage area to pick the season's top boys basketball performer through a fan ballot it runs on Crowdsignal. The 2025 poll closed at noon on Wednesday, March 11. Editions ran in 2023 plus 2025, and the paper prints no rules text on the ballot, so read the live poll before voting.
Illinois readers decide the Journal Star's girls basketball fan award through a public Crowdsignal poll hosted at poll.fm. Runs are confirmed for 2023 plus 2025, and the organizer's story sets a hard deadline: voting closes at noon on Wednesday, March 4. Casting a pick is free, nominees appear directly on the ballot, and the outcome feeds the paper's season-closing coverage.
The Peoria Journal Star lets its Illinois high school softball readership pick a Fan's Choice Player of the Year on a Crowdsignal page it hosts at poll.fm. The 2022 and 2025 cycles are the confirmed editions, with the 2025 run dated to May and closing at noon on a Thursday. The closed 2025 ballot showed the Brimfield/Elmwood nominee leading on 1,499 votes. Rules on repeat voting were not printed.
Each season the Journal Star lets its readers name a fans' choice boys soccer player of the year, with the balloting handled through Crowdsignal's poll.fm service. Edition years on file are 2023, 2025 and 2026, and the 2025 vote ran in August. The organizer states the fans' choice carries no weight toward the official Player of the Year award or the annual All-Area team. This page gathers the published facts about the ballot and its rules.
The Journal Star, an Illinois newspaper, lets readers pick its volleyball player of the year through a Fans' Choice poll balloted at poll.fm under Crowdsignal. The years 2022 and 2025 hold confirmed editions, and the 2025 ballot ran during August before closing. The ballot lists nominees by school rather than by category, and the paper publishes no exact start or finish dates, no repeat-vote rule and no eligibility policy for the honor.
WKGL-FM, the Rockford, Illinois station behind 967theeagle.net, runs a public fan ballot asking listeners to vote for Rockford's James Robinson for NFL Rookie of the Year. The station tells football fans the award is decided entirely by them, and voting stays open until January 25th. Where the Illinois readers-choice contests list many categories, this ballot asks about a single NFL honor.
Forever Husky runs a photo vote on GoGo Photo Contest where supporters submit a Husky or Husky Mix picture and the winning photos appear in the Forever Husky 2026 Calendar. Voting opened at noon Central Time on Thursday, October 16, 2025, and every vote was a one dollar donation to the rescue. Confirmed editions cover 2025 and 2026. The ballot page states the contest has ended, so the next calendar cycle and its dates are not yet posted.
Friday Night Drive Team Of The Week Playoffs is a public-vote balloting program run by the Daily Chronicle (Illinois) on the Second Street platform. It lets Illinois high school football followers pick a Team of the Week during the playoffs. A confirmed 2025 playoffs Round 1 voting round ran November 2 to November 3, 2025, and editions are confirmed for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Glen Ellyn residents decide which decorated home wins the village holiday light contest each December. The Village of Glen Ellyn runs the program, and the 2025 voting window opened December 1 and closes December 20. Homes registered by December 15 receive a lawn sign, and supporters may back one home in each category every day of the window.
HBA of Greater Chicago / North Shore runs its Parade of Homes each spring and fall, pairing new-construction entries with a People's Choice Award. The touring public votes for a favorite home each cycle, a suburban attendee vote rather than a name recalled from memory; the exact ballot mechanic isn't published this season.
Decatur Herald & Review's annual Readers' Choice awards for its central Illinois circulation area, promoted at herald-review.com. A 2025 ballot is confirmed to have run; the category list, nomination window, and vote cap are not fixed in the public record here, so treat the live herald-review.com page as the only current authority each cycle.
Carpentersville runs a winter decorating tradition through its own village government. The Holiday Lighting Contest, administered by the Village of Carpentersville on the official cville.org website, rewards households whose holiday displays go above-and-beyond. Editions have run every winter from 2022 through 2026, with 2025 registration closing in mid-December at 3:00 PM and judging wrapped up before the end of December.
Illinois Birddog Rescue runs the Have A Heart 10 Calendar Contest, a public-vote photo fundraiser hosted on GoGo Photo Contest. The confirmed close is midnight (11:59:59 PM Central Time) on Saturday, December 6, 2025. The organizer is based in Wood Dale, Illinois. Editions for 2025 and 2026 appear on the ballot, and the rescue marks its 10th anniversary with this calendar. The category count and the per-voter rule are not published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
The Kane County Chronicle runs the Kane County Athlete of the Week series on Second Street, its weekly high school sports ballot for Kane County, Illinois. Week 3 of the 2026-27 season opened September 13, 2026 and closes September 15, 2026. The series has run four seasons, 2023-24 through 2026-27. The Chronicle has not printed the ballot's category list or its per-supporter rule; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
Kane County Chronicle runs Kane County Magazine Finest on a Second Street ballot at kanecounty.secondstreetapp.com, and the 2026 voting window is tight: confirmed open just August 29 through September 14. It is the program's second confirmed edition after 2025, though the Chronicle has not published that earlier edition's exact dates, so there is no way yet to compare how the window shifts year to year. A breakdown of entry categories and a limit on votes per supporter are also missing, so confirm on the live ballot each cycle before a Kane County business commits to a plan around either one.
Kane County Chronicle, a weekly paper based in St. Charles, hosts Kane County's Coolest Car Photo Contest on Second Street at kanecounty.secondstreetapp.com. Archived evidence puts the total at two editions, 2024 and 2025, and the latest entry window closed May 17 after opening April 22, 2025. Neither a category breakdown nor a per-voter limit has surfaced for this photo ballot; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
The Kane County Chronicle invites its readers across Kane County, Illinois, to crown the coolest car in the area through an online photo ballot. The 2025 edition ran on the Second Street platform from April 22 through May 17, 2025, and an earlier edition ran in 2024. This page gathers the confirmed dates, the ballot address and the voting mechanics in one place.
KC Top Workplaces 2025 is a workplace awards ballot run by the Kane County Chronicle, the weekly St. Charles newspaper serving Kane County, Illinois. The ballot runs on Second Street, and its 2025 voting window ran from November 17 through December 22, 2025. That cycle is now closed. Confirmed editions also include 2024, and a 2026 run is the expected next step.
The Lerch Bates People's Choice Awards are run by AIA Chicago with the Chicago Architecture Center, and unlike the reader polls and community ballots elsewhere in Illinois this one honors architecture. Public voting for the 2026 cycle runs September 8 through September 16, 2026, closing at 11:59 PM central on the final day. Each supporter may cast one vote per email address, per category, on the ballot AIA Chicago publishes for the program.
Illinois's weekly boys high school performer honor vote is published by MileSplit and carried on the Crowdsignal poll host poll.fm. The ballot held at the voting address covers June 15 to 21 and is marked Poll Closed. Confirmed edition years run 2023, 2024 and 2026, with dated weekly ballots inside each season. The ballot page omits rules text, nomination procedure and repeat-vote policy, so the live ballot governs each week.
The Champaign News-Gazette's People's Choice readers-vote program, run at news-gazette.com/peoples_choice for the university-adjacent Champaign-Urbana market. No published category list, vote cap, or fixed calendar exists in the record checked for this guide; confirm current rules on the live page each cycle.
WROK 1440 AM invites fans to vote for the Stateline Winter Team of the Year, a high school sports fan ballot hosted on the station's own website in Illinois. The winning team receives a $500 Visa prize courtesy of Rock Valley College. Confirmed editions run from 2022 through 2026, with each cycle sitting inside a winter season. Nominees are gathered over the weekend and the vote itself runs early in the week.
This Peoria, Illinois business awards ballot is published by a Gannett / USA TODAY Network local paper on the Your Choice Awards platform, and it celebrates the best businesses and organizations in the Peoria area. Editions are logged for 2025 and 2026. The 2026 cycle opened with nominations June 1-22, moved to a voting round August 7-21, and announced winners November 3, 2026. Supporters may cast one vote daily in each category, and the program recognizes over 450 businesses and organizations each year.
YourChoiceAwards runs the Peoria Journal Star's Community's Choice readers-choice program at peoriail.communityvotes.com, where the public votes for local businesses across the Peoria metro. Results are published in the Peoria Journal Star itself, and the specific category list, vote cap, and calendar are not documented anywhere else public.
Sauk Valley Media's annual reader vote across 100 categories for the Sterling, Rock Falls, and Dixon region — 67,000-plus votes and 1,400-plus businesses recognized in 2025, with winners announced at a live gala.
YourChoiceAwards runs Springfield Community's Choice at yourchoiceawards.com/springfieldil/, the capital city's local readers-choice program. The 2025 cycle's winners are confirmed; category list, vote cap, and this cycle's close date should be read off the live ballot page rather than assumed from a prior year.
Stark County runs a weekly public vote, the Boys High School Athlete of the Week, for Illinois boys athletes on Crowdsignal at poll.fm. The confirmed ballot, poll 17128551, covers the June 8-14 window and is marked closed, with baseball nominees from two schools. Seasons run across 2025 and 2026, and the next season is expected in 2027.
Stark County, an organizer name matching an Illinois newspaper, runs the Stark County Boys High School Coach of the Year as a public-vote sports award on Crowdsignal's poll.fm. Confirmed editions carried July windows in 2025 and 2026, the 2025-26 poll now shows closed results, and nothing has been published about a 2027 edition.
This weekly honor goes to a high school athlete chosen entirely by readers. The Daily Leader, an Illinois newspaper covering Pontiac plus Lexington, Dwight, Cornell, Gridley and Woodland, organizes it. Edition years on file are 2023, 2024 and 2025. Ballots live on Crowdsignal's poll.fm polling service, and one published call for votes fixed a sample week at March 17-22. The publisher caps voting at a single vote per person per day.
The Peoria Journal Star, the daily paper serving Peoria, Illinois, invites readers each season to name the area's top girls' basketball player through a Crowdsignal poll. The paper's own coverage set the 2026 endpoint at noon on Wednesday, March 4, and the poll page now carries a Poll Closed heading. Opening dates, category detail and any per-supporter rule are not printed on the ballot; read the live page before planning anything.
The Peoria Journal Star asks readers to choose its preseason high school boys tennis player of the year in a public poll run through Crowdsignal's poll.fm service. The ballot serves the Peoria, Illinois area and its 2026 edition closed at noon Friday, Aug. 14. Confirmed editions also include 2023, and the newspaper publishes no per-supporter vote rule for this tennis ballot.
The preseason girls soccer fans' choice award from Peoria, Illinois's Peoria Journal Star asks readers to pick the preseason high school girl soccer player of the year before the season starts. The 2026 edition ran as a Crowdsignal ballot at poll.fm, with nominees from schools including Peoria Notre Dame, Washington and Morton. The paper stated the 2026 polling opportunity would remain open until noon on Tuesday, April 7. Confirmed editions sit in 2023 and 2026, and the program reads as an annual preseason fixture in the paper's soccer coverage.
Run by the Rockford Register Star, an Illinois newspaper, and hosted on Crowdsignal (poll.fm), this high school volleyball poll asks fans across the Rockford area to pick a preseason player of the year. Its 2023 and 2025 cycles are the confirmed editions and it recurs annually. Voting for the current preseason ballot runs in August, and the Register Star printed a close for Tuesday, Aug. 18 in the 2026 cycle. Nominees come from area schools, and supporters cast a plain public vote.
Readers of the Rockford Register Star in Rockford, Illinois pick a Female Athlete of the Year on a Crowdsignal poll reached through poll.fm. The voting happens in June, and the years on file for this award are 2023 and 2025. The newspaper prints no opening or closing dates, no category roster and no per-person rule on the ballot page, so read the live poll before planning anything around it.
The Rockford Register Star Male Athlete of the Year lets readers choose one male high school athlete from the Rockford, Illinois area. The newspaper places the vote on Crowdsignal, at poll.fm under ballot 15636927. Its coverage sets the window at July 1 through July 15 and asks for one vote per person per day. The years 2023 and 2025 each carried a confirmed edition.
Prep football followers near Springfield, Illinois settle the SJ-R's player of the year honor on a fan ballot that Crowdsignal hosts. The SJ-R owns the award, nominees appear beside their schools, and the voting stretch has landed in December. Runs in 2023 and 2025 put the program on an annual footing, so a 2026 round is the natural next expectation. Start and finish dates live on the ballot itself.
The State Journal-Register, the Illinois newspaper at sj-r.com, picks an Athlete of the Week from Springfield area high school sports most weeks, with each round's ballot hosted by Crowdsignal on its poll.fm domain. Editions are confirmed for 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. The paper says supporters may vote every 12 hours.
A reader award from The State Journal-Register, the Springfield, Illinois newspaper, honours the area's boys track & field athlete of the year on Crowdsignal's poll.fm. Confirmed editions: 2023 and 2025, with the latest ballot open in June 2025. The current widget is closed and the paper has not printed next-round timing; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
The State Journal-Register, the Springfield, Illinois newspaper, asks readers to name a preseason player of the year in boys basketball on Crowdsignal, at poll.fm/16321090. Runs in 2023 and 2025 are documented, and the current ballot printed a close of Thursday, April 9, at noon. Coaches nominate the all-area players; the public selects the winner. Any per-supporter limit is not printed on the ballot.
Chicago's hospitality, tourism and events industry votes on The Summit Awards through The Summit Chicago's own website. The 2026 cycle opens nominations on February 5, 2026, starts public voting on March 11, 2026, and closes that voting on April 17, 2026. Winners are announced at the Summit on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. The ballot spans categories recognizing individuals, venues, agencies and creative enterprises, and each email address may back a choice up to 2 times per day.
Alton · The Telegraph
The Telegraph runs the Riverbend and Madison County Best of the Best for Alton, Illinois, a readers'-choice ballot hosted at telegraph.secondstreetapp.com. Five confirmed editions back the program, 2022 through 2026, and the current window is scheduled to open September 10 and run through October 29, 2026. That page names no category roster and sets no per-voter ceiling; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
The Tribune Readers Choice Food Awards is the Chicago Tribune's readers choice ballot for food and drink across Illinois, hosted on Second Street at chicagotribune.secondstreetapp.com. Confirmed editions ran in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, and the Tribune traces the awards to a 2011 inception. The 2025 voting round ran January 24 through February 7 at 11:59 p.m., with winners named March 5.
The Catholic High School League Football Player of the Week vote from state finals is a high school football fan ballot for Illinois and the wider Catholic league community, hosted on Crowdsignal (poll.fm). Seasons are on file for 2023 and 2025, and each year's balloting runs from September through December. Anyone may cast a vote on the live ballot for free. The league leaves its round-by-round calendar, its category list and any per-supporter limit unpublished, so supporters must confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
The Catholic High School League runs a spring athlete of the week ballot on Crowdsignal (poll.fm) for Illinois high school sport. The confirmed ballot covered June 8-14 competition and is marked closed. Edition years confirmed so far are 2023 and 2026, and the recurrence notes point to 2027 for the next cycle. Window dates, category lists and any voting rules beyond what the ballot itself prints are not published by the organizer, so supporters should read the live poll before planning a push.
Vote: Stark County Boys High School Coach of the Year is a coach honor, not a player honor, carried on Crowdsignal at poll.fm and filed in Illinois. Two edition years, 2025 and 2026, are on file, and the 2025-26 ballot shut at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 23. Supporters choose from coaches whose credentials sit above the poll itself.
WGN Radio's bracket-style burger tournament for the Chicago metro, run online with sponsor backing from Turano Baking and Puckered Pickle. Restaurants advance round by round on public votes rather than a single open-ended ballot, and the winner earns bragging rights across the station's food coverage.
WGN Radio's annual Chicago Pizza Madness bracket under its Chicago's Very Own Eats franchise, pitting 128 pizzerias across four regions in single-elimination online voting that drew more than 95,000 votes in 2025, roughly double the field size of many regional pizza brackets elsewhere in the country.
This Rockford area readers' choice ballot celebrates local businesses and organizations across a broad category roster on Your Choice Awards, under the local Gannett / USA TODAY Network paper. The 2026 cycle opened with nominations in June, moved to a voting round in August, and announced winners in November. Supporters may vote once a day in each category while voting is open.
The Peoria Journal Star asks readers to pick a preseason player of the year in high school softball through a Crowdsignal form served at poll.fm. Confirmed editions sit in 2023 and 2026, which marks the programme as an annual fixture, and the 2026 poll closed at noon on Friday, Aug. 21. Beside the form, the publisher posts no category list and no rule on repeat voting.
The Rockford Register Star runs a public vote that asks readers to decide its Female Athlete of the Year. Balloting happens on Crowdsignal at poll.fm. The confirmed 2025 poll ran during June. Editions are also confirmed for 2023. Nominees come from high schools across the Rockford area in northern Illinois, including Byron, Stillman Valley and Belvidere North.
The SJ-R runs a public vote asking readers who its football player of the year around Springfield is. Balloting takes place on Crowdsignal through the poll.fm domain, and the listing for the latest cycle is headed Poll Closed. Confirmed cycles ran in 2023 and 2025, which qualifies the program as an annual fixture in Springfield, Illinois. The printed close is noon on August 21, and the final line shows a 37 percent finish on 626 votes.
The State Journal-Register asks readers to name a midseason boys basketball player of the year covering the Springfield area of Illinois. Area coaches nominate, readers decide on a Crowdsignal ballot, and the printed rule allows one player every hour. The 2026 window ran April 3 through April 9, closing at noon on Thursday, April 9.
Each August before the Illinois high school soccer season, The State Journal-Register of Springfield asks sj-r.com readers one preseason question on Crowdsignal's poll.fm host: which boys soccer player merits the player of the year tag. Runs in 2023 and 2025 are the confirmed ones, the 2025 ballot now closed, and a 2026 edition is the expectation. Nominees represent central Illinois towns. The paper prints no window dates and no per-supporter rule ahead of the ballot going live.
Unlike Illinois readers'-choice programs run through a shared "best of" network, WSIL Viewers' Choice Awards is organized directly by WSIL-TV, serving the Harrisburg-Marion-Carbondale television market in southern Illinois, on its own wsiltv.secondstreetapp.com listing. Two editions are confirmed, 2024 and 2025, the more recent closing September 15, 2025. A 2026 edition is not yet published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
Each November, The State Journal-Register hands its boys soccer player of the year choice to readers through Crowdsignal at poll.fm. Confirmed cycles cover 2023 and 2025, and the 2025 page had already closed when read. Nominees are area high school players shown with their schools, and open and close days appear only on the live ballot itself.
Illinois runs its County Fair Queen People's Choice pageant straight from the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs' own site, illinoiscountyfairs.org, rather than through a shared voting network. The confirmed run stands at two editions, 2025 and the 2026 vote open Saturday, December 20, 2025 through Saturday, January 17, 2026. Every name on the ballot is a queen representing the county fair she comes from, so the page covers Illinois as a whole rather than one county alone. No category roster or per-voter limit is published past that window; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
The Illinois County Fair Queen People's Choice ballot is run by the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs on the association's own website. Voting in the current cycle runs from Saturday, December 20, 2025 through Saturday, January 17, 2026. Each vote costs one dollar and a supporter may cast as many votes as desired. The confirmed run covers the 2025 and 2026 editions.
The 2026 Cutest Pet Calendar Contest is a public-vote pet photo ballot run by The Herald-Whig of Quincy, Illinois on the Second Street platform. Its confirmed 2025 promotion window ran from October 11 through November 29, 2025. The Herald-Whig publishes the ballot at whig.secondstreetapp.com, and the calendar label for the cycle is 2026. Category details and any per-supporter vote rules are not printed on the page held here, so confirm those details on the live ballot before any campaign.
Huntley · Animal House Shelter Calendar Contest
The Animal House Shelter Calendar Contest is a Huntley, Illinois animal shelter's annual photo fundraiser, run through GoGo Photo Contest at gogophotocontest.com/animalhouseshelter. Entry and voting run together in one window, confirmed to close November 1, 2026, with the 13 highest-voted photos earning a spot in the shelter's 2027 calendar. A category list isn't published beyond that, and a vote cap isn't either; check the live contest page directly for both.
Quincy · The Herald-Whig (Quincy Media)
Quincy, Illinois' daily paper, The Herald-Whig, owned by Quincy Media, runs the Cutest Pet Calendar Contest on the Second Street platform at whig.secondstreetapp.com. One documented window ran October 11 through November 29, 2025, and the Herald-Whig treats the contest as an annual fixture even though only that single window is dated so far. Submitting a pet photo is the entire mechanic; the "2026" in the program's own name marks the calendar year the winning photos are meant to fill, not a second dated cycle. Neither the category list nor a voting ceiling is printed there; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.
The Quad City Pet Photo Calendar Contest is Quad City Animal Welfare Center's annual photo fundraiser, hosted on GoGo Photo Contest's gogophotocontest.com/qcawc2026calendar page. The page names the cycle behind the 2026 calendar its 3rd Annual edition. The last confirmed entry window ran August 29 through September 19, 2025, with voting following September 20 through October 12, 2025. This cycle's page does not spell out how categories break down or set any limit on votes per person; the live site is where to check both.
Chicago's Lakeview and Roscoe Village neighborhoods host the People's Choice "Best Taco" vote at the Lakeview Taco Fest, organized by the Lakeview Roscoe Village Chamber of Commerce. The event's own listing carries the title "13th Annual Lakeview Taco Fest," dated August 21, 2026, with two confirmed editions, 2025 and 2026. The People's Choice text-to-vote for best taco runs throughout the festival weekend, though the listing does not print a category list or a per-voter limit.
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