Kiwanis Club of Westminster Dog of the Year: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Kiwanis Club of Westminster Dog of the Year?

The Kiwanis Club of Westminster Dog of the Year is a public online vote for Carroll County dogs, run by the Kiwanis Club of Westminster in Westminster, Maryland. The page is titled Carroll County Dog of the Year, and it is presented as a fundraiser for the club.

The contest page is organized into sections labeled Participate, View Entries, Rules and About Us, so a supporter can check the rules and look at the entries before voting. The contest asks supporters to vote for their favorite dog entry, and the page names the twelve dogs with the most votes as the ones featured on the calendar. Carroll County is the county the contest name points to, so the vote is about dogs from that part of Maryland.

Which Carroll County dog contest editions are confirmed?

The confirmed editions are 2022, 2023 and 2024, which makes the Westminster contest an annual dog vote rather than a single event. The 2023 page is the reference point for the year-by-year history, and it ties its top votes to the 2024 Dog of the Year calendar.

The sources for this page do not print an open or close day for any edition, so the voting window is a gap in this guide; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. The club's voting page is the place to confirm dates when they are posted.

The sources do not name a date for the coming contest, which is why this guide stops at the 2024 calendar.

How does a supporter vote for a dog today?

A supporter opens the club's voting page, scans the dog entries, and submits a vote for the dog 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.

Choosing a dog to support

The View Entries section is where a supporter browses the dogs, and each entry on the page is a dog. The vote counts toward the entry the supporter selects. The page then features the dogs with the most votes, which is the mechanism the calendar depends on.

Voting steps on the page

How does this Maryland dog vote sit beside other Maryland ballots?

The Westminster contest shares Maryland with pet and best-of ballots. The nearest pet sibling is the Humane Society of Charles County calendar pet photo contest, which is also a pet photo ballot run by another organizer in the state.

The Westminster vote differs from the Baltimore-area best-of ballots, such as the Best of Baltimore from Baltimore Magazine and the Baltimore Style Readers' Choice. Those ballots pick local businesses, while this one picks dogs from Carroll County, and it is run by a service club rather than a publication.

How can a supporter help a Carroll County dog get more votes?

The most useful step is to tell Carroll County dog lovers that the voting page is open and where to find it. The sources for this page describe a public online vote, so a supporter's job is to point people to the page and let them choose.

For a general guide to building support online, read our page on getting more votes online. Anyone considering purchased votes should first read whether buying votes is legal and the club's rules, since those rules decide whether bought votes count.

Paid options for public contests are covered on the buy votes online page, but nobody selling them can promise a result for a dog in a public vote whose counting rules belong to the club.