Best Of The Delta: How Voting Works & How to Win

What Best Of The Delta is and who puts it on

Best Of The Delta is a readers' choice style program in the best-of vertical, run as a public vote for the Monroe, Louisiana market. The mechanic here is the plainest in local media: supporters see a list of finalists, pick a favorite in the categories shown and submit, and the entries with the most support stand at the end. There is no jury step described anywhere on the ballot page, so public support is the whole contest.

The vote is carried by Second Street, the platform behind the domain thenewsstar.secondstreetapp.com, and the ballot link currently points at the 2017 edition of the program. The hosted page is branded Gannett Promotions, and its footer carries the copyright line "© Copyright Gannett 2026", which places the ballot inside the Gannett promotions family rather than on a standalone community site.

Everything a reader needs to identify this ballot sits on one page, and the essentials are gathered below.

One caution follows directly from that table. No fuller organizational name for the program appears on the ballot page, so anyone who needs the exact publisher behind the domain should rely on what the ballot itself displays rather than on secondhand descriptions of who runs it.

The dating history: which editions are confirmed and when the window falls

The program is an annual one, and its confirmed editions cover 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, then 2022 through 2025. That list comes from the ballot's own footprint across those years, and it makes Best Of The Delta a long-running fixture in the Monroe, Louisiana market rather than a one-season promotion. The calendar points to 2026 as the next expected cycle.

On timing, the strongest printed fact is from the 2017 ballot, which told supporters in so many words: "Vote for your favorite finalist from now until August 31st!" That gives the program a demonstrated late-August closing point for at least the 2017 edition. Exact open and close dates for this year's run, plus any nomination round that may precede voting, are not printed on the hosted page, and neither are the dates of any platform-side rounds; a supporter planning around the calendar should confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Two other gaps sit alongside the calendar. The ballot page publishes no category roster in advance and no per-supporter return rule, so the finalist list and any limit on repeat participation only become visible on the live ballot for the edition in question.

What the dating history does establish is consistency: an annual program, running under the same name on the same Second Street domain, across eight confirmed editions.

How a supporter votes on the ballot today

Voting takes little explaining. A supporter opens the ballot at thenewsstar.secondstreetapp.com through the program's link, the Second Street form loads with its Gannett Promotions branding, and the page presents the finalists for the live edition. The supporter picks a favorite in each category shown and submits before the closing date the ballot prints. The 2017 wording, voting for a favorite finalist from then until August 31st, is the clearest description the program has ever given of that task.

Because the live link points at the 2017 edition, a visitor today should treat that page as the most recent ballot available at this address and check it for whatever edition is currently open. The ballot page does not publish the category roster in advance, so the full list of choices appears only once the form loads. It also does not state whether an account, an email confirmation or a login is required, so the form itself will prompt for whatever the edition needs.

The practical reading for a supporter is this: the ballot is the single source of truth for categories, deadlines and any return instructions. Nothing published alongside it adds rules, and nothing published alongside it changes the task, which stays what the 2017 page said it was, choosing a favorite finalist before the printed closing date.

Where this ballot sits among Louisiana's best-of programs

Louisiana runs a busy best-of circuit, and Best Of The Delta is its entry for the Monroe market. Around it sit six sibling programs, each answering to its own organizer and its own ballot. Alexandria Community's Choice Awards serves Alexandria, Bayou's Best Community's Choice Awards serves Houma, and Best of Baton Rouge covers the capital.

Further along the list, Best of SWLA runs its own southwestern program, Best of New Orleans covers the largest market in the state, and Best of 225 gives the 225 area its own readers' ballot. What separates Best Of The Delta from all six is its hosting arrangement: it is the program in this group that lives on thenewsstar.secondstreetapp.com under Second Street with Gannett Promotions branding on the ballot page.

The shared shape matters more than the differences for a supporter, though. Every program in the group uses the public-vote mechanic, every one is a best-of business ballot, and every one leaves the fine print, categories, limits and exact dates, on its own live ballot rather than in a standing rule set. A business that competes in more than one Louisiana market therefore faces the same task in each: earn public support on a ballot whose specifics are only visible when that edition's form loads.

Strengthening support within this ballot's rules

Support in Best Of The Delta is earned the way the ballot itself defines it: a favorite finalist is chosen before the closing date, which the 2017 edition set at August 31st. The most reliable push therefore starts from the ballot link itself, shared directly with customers who already know the business, with a plain ask to pick it as their favorite while the edition is open. Because no per-supporter return rule appears on the ballot page, a campaign should follow whatever the live form allows rather than assume a daily-return pattern carries over from another program.

The ballot page carries no statement from the organizer on outside assistance, which is exactly why purchased support is a question to settle against the ballot's fine print before anything is spent. No service can promise a win in a public vote, and this ballot's unpublished fine print makes that doubly true. The general mechanics of earning and adding support are laid out in buy award votes, which covers how award-style ballots like this one are treated across the board.