Best of Washtenaw: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is Best of Washtenaw and who runs it?

Best of Washtenaw is a reader-driven awards program for Washtenaw County, Michigan, in which the audience, not a panel, chooses the winners. Current Magazine, the Ann Arbor publication that shares a publishing home with the Ann Arbor Observer, runs the program on its own website. The live ballot for the current round lives at ecurrent.com under the music path, and the page's copyright line credits Current Magazine directly, so the magazine is both organizer and host.

The invitation on the ballot addresses county residents personally. It asks what your favorite part of Washtenaw County is, whether there is a store you love, or whether a doctor made you feel comfortable. That phrasing signals a county-wide business and services ballot covering retail, healthcare and everything between, rather than a narrow single-topic poll. The Ann Arbor Observer's website keeps a page devoted to the area's print publications, and that page names Washtenaw, Michigan as the market this program serves, tying the mastheads together.

Which editions are on the books, and when does the 2026 round end?

The published sequence shows rounds in 2019, 2020 and 2021, then again from 2023 through 2026, with 2022 absent from that stretch. The magazine frames the cadence on its own pages: current readers determine the Best of Washtenaw awards every year. On that rhythm the next round would fall in 2027, although no 2027 ballot has been posted yet.

The current cycle carries one clearly printed boundary. The 2026 ballot tells readers, in its own words, that "You can vote once a day through October 15!" That sentence supplies both the cadence and the deadline, and it is the only dated limit the ballot text announces. No opening-day date, no results date and no phase-by-phase schedule accompany it.

Equally worth knowing is what the ballot withholds. Current Magazine prints its daily rule plainly but keeps nominee eligibility and the full slate of sections off the ballot text; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. Supporters planning a serious push should therefore re-read the magazine's page before each visit, since the publisher can adjust its lineup at any point in the round.

How does a supporter cast a vote in the 2026 round?

Voting takes place on the magazine's page itself. Open the Best of Washtenaw 2026 article on ecurrent.com, where the text greets readers with "We want to hear from you!" and then lays out the ballot for the county favorites worth backing. A supporter picks the businesses, services and people deserving recognition and submits those choices on the spot.

The ballot behaves like any conventional web page. Phones and desktops reach it through the same ecurrent.com address, and the magazine publishes no dedicated app for the program, so there is nothing to install and no separate destination to remember.

Timing matters as much as the click itself. Because the printed instruction ties each reader to a single daily visit, someone who backs a favorite today can do the same tomorrow and each day after, right up to the October close. Supporters who treat the ballot as a daily habit, rather than a chore done once, give their favorites a steadier accumulation of support across the whole voting stretch.

How does this ballot sit beside Michigan's other reader polls?

Michigan hosts several reader-choice programs, and this one occupies a distinctive lane among them. Neighbouring programs on the state page include Best of Northern Michigan, the Detroit Community Choice Awards, the Detroit Music Awards, the Detroit News Readers' Choice, the DN Readers Choice Awards and Grand Rapids Magazine Best of GR. Each covers a different geography or art form, and Best of Northern Michigan is the closest geographic cousin in spirit, swapping county scale for a whole-region reach.

Metro Detroit's entries lean on newspaper muscle. The Detroit News Readers' Choice ballot belongs to a major daily, while the Detroit Community Choice Awards chase the metro market broadly. Grand Rapids Magazine brings the same best-of formula to Michigan's western side. Against that field, Best of Washtenaw stays deliberately local: one county, anchored by Ann Arbor, judged by the readers of a magazine embedded in that community.

The hosting arrangement separates it further. Where many reader polls rent space on external platforms, Current Magazine keeps this ballot on ecurrent.com among its other reader features, among them a Best Friends Photo Contest and a Song of the Summer voting bracket from 2024.

How can a Washtenaw business strengthen its support during the round?

Daily return visits reward breadth over intensity. One loyal customer backing the business every morning for weeks contributes more than a burst of same-day clicks, so the practical play is reminding a wide base of supporters each day until the October 15 close. Staff, regulars and neighbourhood groups each represent a daily slot that compounds across the voting stretch.

Use the organizer's own promotional bundle as the base of the push, then layer personal reminders on top of it. For tactics that travel across contests, the online votes guide breaks down outreach habits suited to county ballots of this sort, where a printed daily ceiling shapes what a campaign can realistically ask of each supporter.