Kids Out and About Top 20 Places to Take Kids (Indianapolis): How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Kids Out and About Top 20 Places to Take Kids survey?

This ballot belongs to Kids Out and About Indianapolis, the Indianapolis channel of the family-calendar brand KidsOutAndAbout.com. Each spring the channel asks local families to name their favorite destinations in the Indianapolis area through its annual survey of the Top 20 Places to Take Kids. The organizer presents the exercise as a long-standing habit: "Each summer since 2005, KidsOutAndAbout has sponsored a survey of the Top 20 Places to Take Kids."

Participation is framed in family terms. The site notes that "thousands of local parents, grandparents, and caregivers weigh in on their favorite local places to take kids" every May and June, which tells a nominee exactly who the electorate is. The survey runs on the organizer's own website rather than on an outside polling host, and the current nominees page sits at the survey address listed in the table below. The page footer carries a © Copyright 2018 EntertainmentCalendar notice, tying the calendar property to its publisher.

Two traits set the format apart for anyone studying Indiana reader polls. The subject is places, not people, so nominations center on the kinds of outings families plan together. And the outcome is a published ranked list rather than a lone trophy recipient, since the nominees page invites readers to revisit the previous year's standings.

When does the Indianapolis Top 20 survey take place?

For the 2026 round the organizers printed a definite voting span: June 7 through June 20, 2026. A companion reminder on the calendar read "Voting is live through June 20," which pinned down the closing day while the ballot was up. The wider rhythm is seasonal; the organizers describe a May-and-June stretch in which local families weigh in, and the survey has anchored the site's summer lineup for two decades.

Recent cycles are documented for 2024, when the site pointed latecomers back to that year's survey form, along with live ballots in 2025 and 2026. Not every scheduling detail is published in advance, though. No separate nomination round is announced with dates of its own, and the page presenting the nominees does not lay out the complete slate of ballot categories; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. Prize arrangements, if any exist, are likewise absent from the nominees page.

Readers curious about the previous outcome do not have to hunt far. The nominees page carries a link back to last year's Top 20, so the finished ordering sits one click away from the current ballot, published by the same office that ran the vote.

How does voting work on the Indianapolis Top 20 nominees page?

Casting a vote happens on the Kids Out and About Indianapolis website itself. A supporter opens the nominees page for the Indianapolis Top 20 survey, reads through the nominated places for the area, and marks favorites in the survey form. The clearest published rule concerns frequency: "You can vote once on each device you have." In everyday terms, every phone, tablet or computer a household controls represents a separate chance to weigh in during the window.

An earlier call to action, from the 2024 cycle, framed the task as placing votes for your top three venues and educator categories, so the form has historically asked supporters to name several favorites rather than a single pick. The nominees page posts no sign-in instructions of its own, and no eligibility terms accompany the list. Because survey layouts can shift between cycles, anyone wondering whether this year's form still requests three picks, or whether a login step has appeared, should read the form itself before submitting.

Where does this survey fit among Indiana's other best-of ballots?

Indiana carries a crowded field of reader-choice ballots, and this survey holds a distinctive lane within it. Statewide, Best of Indiana solicits picks across a broad general-interest spectrum. Metro-level programs such as CommunityVotes Fort Wayne Best Of, CommunityVotes Evansville Best Of, CommunityVotes Bloomington IN Best Of and YourChoiceAwards South Bend Best Of follow the familiar best-of-business template city by city. Best of Elkhart County brings a county-wide, newsroom-backed variant of the same idea.

Against that backdrop, the Kids Out and About Indianapolis survey separates itself on three points. The subject matter is family outings rather than professional services. The electorate is built from parents, grandparents and caregivers, a self-selecting audience with strong opinions about where children enjoy spending a day. And the result is a ranked Top 20 list published on the site, not a single crowned winner. For a nominee whose appeal is mainly to families, those differences make this the most precisely aimed ballot of the group, even though its reach is narrower than a statewide or metro-wide business poll.

How can supporters boost a favorite venue's standing?

The printed rule shapes every practical move. The organizer's per-device allowance turns each gadget in a house into a separate chance to participate, so a family can act on the shared tablet, each adult's phone and an office computer before the June 20 close. Widening the circle matters just as much: the audience the organizers themselves describe includes grandparents and caregivers, so inviting those relatives to take part extends reach well beyond the immediate household.

Sharing the nominees page link directly, with a note naming the favored venue, saves would-be supporters the step of hunting for the ballot. Everything has to happen inside the printed window, because late arrivals find the vote shut. Beyond the per-device limit, the site publishes no additional guidance on organized campaigns, so conventional outreach remains the dependable path. For a fuller playbook, the site's guide to earning more votes online collects outreach habits that transfer across reader polls of this sort.