Forty under 40 Winners: How Voting Works & How to Win

Who votes in Forty under 40 Winners and why

The Forty under 40 Winners ballot belongs to Fort Wayne's business community. It is run by Fort Wayne Newspapers, the publisher organization registered on the Second Street platform, and it sits in the best-of vertical: a public vote where supporters decide which young professionals earn recognition. The market label places the program in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and the ballot is aimed at the readers, employers, clients and colleagues who know the honorees personally.

That audience shapes how the vote works in practice. A person nominated to a forty under 40 list typically has a workplace, a client base and a professional network in northeast Indiana, and those are the people who show up to vote. Unlike a broad best-of-business ballot such as CommunityVotes Fort Wayne Best Of, this program honors individuals rather than storefronts, so the support base is personal rather than commercial.

The ballot itself is hosted at fortwayne.secondstreetapp.com, the Second Street address Fort Wayne Newspapers uses for its reader promotions. The promotion is typed UGCVoting with photo support, meaning entries carry images alongside the people listed. Voting costs nothing and any supporter may take part during the confirmed window.

The 2026 window and what the ballot does not publish

One edition of this ballot is confirmed: the 2026 cycle. Voting opened on July 9, 2026 and closes on October 1, 2026, a window of nearly three months during which the ballot is live on Second Street. The listing is marked open, so a supporter visiting today lands on an active vote rather than a closed or upcoming page.

The name suggests a recurring award, and Fort Wayne's business press has covered forty under 40 recognition in the past, but for this specific ballot only 2026 is a confirmed edition year. No second year is published anywhere on the listing, and no next edition date is given. This is the first confirmed edition; whether it returns next year is not yet published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Several facts a supporter might want are simply not printed on the listing. The ballot's category structure is not shown, no ceiling on repeat support is stated, and no eligibility rules for voters appear on the page. Those gaps matter less than they might seem: the live form enforces whatever rules apply, so a supporter who visits and votes follows the process as the organizer built it. Anyone planning a coordinated support push should read the ballot page itself before acting, since the terms shown there at voting time are the ones that count.

How to vote on the ballot today

Voting takes place entirely on the Second Street page at fortwayne.secondstreetapp.com/Forty-under-40-Winners. A supporter opens the page, browses the honorees listed, and casts picks in the sections the ballot presents. Because the promotion is typed UGCVoting with photo support, each entry shows an image next to the name, which helps supporters confirm they are picking the right person before submitting.

The listing carries no statement about logins, daily returns or any cap on repeat submissions, so the practical instruction is simple: visit the page, make your picks, submit, and follow any instruction the live form gives about coming back. If the form allows a return the next day it will say so; if it does not, one submission stands. Either way the deadline is firm, because voting closes on October 1, 2026.

Timing matters for another reason. The window runs from early July to the start of October, which is long by ballot standards, but support gathered early has more room to compound than support gathered in the final week. A supporter organizing a workplace push should aim well before the close date rather than treating October 1 as the day to act.

Where this ballot sits among Indiana's votes

Indiana carries a crowded lineup of public votes, and the Forty under 40 Winners ballot is unusual among them in two ways. First, it is a newspaper-run award rather than a community-votes platform program: Fort Wayne Newspapers is the organizer, and Second Street is only the host. Second, it honors individual professionals under forty rather than businesses, which puts it closer to a professional recognition award than a classic best-of ballot.

Its nearest neighbours in the state's lineup include Best of Indiana, a statewide ballot, and the CommunityVotes programs in Bloomington, Evansville, Fort Wayne and South Bend. East of Fort Wayne, Best of Elkhart County serves the Elkhart Truth's readership. Each of those answers to its own publisher and runs on its own calendar, so support given to one program does nothing for the others.

Within Fort Wayne itself, the organizer runs several promotions on the same Second Street address. A separate survey named Forty Under 40 2027 is listed with a window running to January 4, 2027, and an Influential Women 2026 ballot ran alongside this one from July 9 to September 14, 2026. A supporter landing on the platform should check the address carefully, because similarly named promotions sit one click apart.

Strengthening support in this ballot

Support in a forty under 40 vote comes from people, not from a business's customer list, so the strongest push is personal outreach. A honoree's coworkers, former colleagues, clients and university network are the natural voters, and a direct ask with the ballot link does more than any public post. Because the window runs from July 9 to October 1, 2026, there is time to ask in stages rather than in one final-week scramble.

The organizer has printed no rule about outside help for this ballot, and the listing states no ceiling on repeat submissions, so a supporter planning a push should read the live form and follow whatever it states. What is true of any public vote is true here: support that reflects real people who actually know the honoree is the support the award is designed to measure. For a complete walkthrough of outreach methods suited to ballots like this one, see our guide on getting more votes online, and for the legal background see our legality page.