Northern Star Best of DeKalb: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Northern Star Best of DeKalb?

The Northern Star Best of DeKalb is a public online ballot run by Northern Star (NIU) for the DeKalb area of Illinois. Readers use the ballot to pick their favorite local businesses and services, and the vote lives on the newspaper's own website rather than on a third-party poll tool.

The organizer's page carries the headline Best of DeKalb: Voting Open Now, which is the first thing a reader sees on the voting page.

Which Best of DeKalb editions are confirmed?

The confirmed editions are 2024 and 2025, which makes the Best of DeKalb an annual readers' ballot run by the newspaper rather than a one-time contest. The 2025 edition is named in the voting notice on the Northern Star site, and the 2024 ballot ran under the same organizer.

The current page reads Voting Open Now, but the sources for this page do not state when the window opens or closes. The live window is therefore a gap in this guide; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Two addresses on the newspaper's site document the run. The main voting page is the one this guide links, and the 2025 notice has its own address that names the vote as voting now open, so a reader can check the year against that notice directly.

No next edition date appears in the sources, so the next ballot cannot be dated here. Readers should look for the newspaper's next voting notice rather than relying on an earlier year's dates.

How does a reader vote in the Best of DeKalb today?

A reader opens the Best of DeKalb voting page on the Northern Star website, scans the local picks, and submits a vote for the business or service they like best. The sources for this page describe the mechanic as a public online vote, with no panel review or paid step in the count.

Picking a local favorite

The ballot presents DeKalb picks as options on the newspaper's site. A reader chooses the option they want to support, and the vote counts toward that pick on the page.

Reader steps on the website

How does DeKalb sit beside other Illinois best-of ballots?

The DeKalb vote shares Illinois with several local ballots. The nearest siblings in the state include the Sauk Valley Favorites and the CommunityVotes Peoria IL ballot, which serve other communities rather than DeKalb.

Other Illinois siblings include the Best of Chicago from the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Style Weddings Best Of, the BAGI Parade of Homes People's Choice and the CommunityVotes Rockford ballot. What makes the DeKalb vote stand apart is its publisher: a newspaper's own site, tied to a single city.

A DeKalb reader comparing ballots should look at the publisher first. The Northern Star runs this vote on its own pages, while the sibling ballots in other Illinois cities are run by other organizers. Each of those ballots has its own rules and its own dates, and this guide leaves those details out.

How can a reader help a DeKalb pick get more votes?

The most useful step is to tell DeKalb readers that the voting page is open and where to find it. The sources for this page describe the vote as a public online vote on the newspaper's site, so a supporter's job is to point people to the ballot and let them choose.

For a general guide to building support online, read our page on getting more votes online. Supporters should also keep in mind that the newspaper's posted rules, not a third party's promise, decide what counts. Read those rules before sharing a link widely. Anyone considering purchased votes should first read whether buying votes is legal and the rules Northern Star publishes, since those rules decide whether bought votes count.

Paid options for public ballots are covered on the buy award votes page, but nobody selling them can promise a result on a readers' ballot whose counting rules belong to the organizer.