Lakeville Magazine Best of Cities South Readers' Choice Poll: How Voting Works & How to Win

Which south-metro cities does Lakeville Magazine's poll cover?

Lakeville Magazine, a Local Media title for the south Twin Cities metro, ties its Best of Cities South poll to a very specific map. The magazine describes the ballot as the best that Apple Valley, Lakeville and Prior Lake have to offer, and it posts results under the label Best of Cities South. That means the contest is not a statewide Minnesota ballot or a general metro ballot; it is a readers' vote for named cities published from the magazine's own site at lakevillemag.com.

The magazine's archive page also shows how the poll sits inside the publication. Its menu runs through sections for dining, shopping, arts, travel, events, community and a photo contest, and the Best of Lakeville entry sits next to them. Those menu items are magazine sections, not ballot categories, and treating them as the roster would invent a list the organizer has not published.

When does the poll run, and which editions are on the books?

The magazine's wording is the best timing source: readers are invited to vote throughout January in its annual readers' poll. January is therefore the month to expect the ballot, while the day it opens and the day it closes are not stated; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. The 2024 and 2025 polls are confirmed, and the archive lists a post headed Discover Your Best of Cities South 2026 Winners.

A winners post for 2026 means that year's ballot has already finished, so a reader arriving today is looking at results rather than a form. The next cycle would follow the January pattern, but the archive carries no announcement for it and nothing in the page text promises a date.

What does a reader do on the ballot?

The mechanic is a reader vote on the magazine's own site. A reader opens the Best of Lakeville archive, finds the poll post that asks for the best of the named cities, and answers the prompts there. No third-party contest platform is named anywhere in the archive text, which suggests the ballot is hosted by the magazine itself, though the text stops short of saying so.

What the archive text leaves out is just as useful to know. It prints no category roster, no per-reader vote limit, no account rule and no eligibility rule. A reader who wants to be sure should read the poll post before voting and treat anything not printed there as unknown. Business owners who hope to win should also remember that Apple Valley, Lakeville and Prior Lake readers decide the outcome, so local customers matter more than a distant audience.

How does it compare with other Minnesota readers' ballots?

Minnesota has several public-vote programs on this site, and each has its own publisher and map. Best of the Midwest and Minnesota's Best are broad ballots, Best of the Best Brainerd Lakes Area serves the Brainerd lakes market, CommunityVotes Duluth and CommunityVotes Rochester serve their own cities, and the Duluth News Tribune runs Best of the Best for its readers.

Lakeville Magazine's poll is smaller in geography than most of them: suburbs in the south metro, a single magazine and a January window. That narrowness is its character. Where Minnesota's Best aims at the whole state and the CommunityVotes pages follow Duluth and Rochester, this ballot follows the readership of one local title, so the poll's scope stays with the named cities and the readers of one local title. Readers who want a statewide view can compare Minnesota's Best, CommunityVotes Duluth or Best of the Best from the Duluth News Tribune, and the remaining siblings are listed in the related programs section.

How do supporters build votes for a local business?

Because the electorate is readers in Apple Valley, Lakeville and Prior Lake, the practical work is local: remind regulars that January is poll month and point them to the Best of Lakeville archive. The votes guide covers outreach for public ballots, and the best business votes page describes the paid route for business-style polls.

Lakeville Magazine prints no statement on outside voting help in the archive text, so its poll post is the only authority on what counts. That matters for any owner weighing paid support: whatever a service promises, the magazine's wording decides which votes count toward the Best of Cities South winners. Questions about legality sit apart from that and are handled on the legal position page.

A sensible local plan stays simple. Tell regular customers in January that the poll is open, put the Best of Lakeville archive address on a counter sign or an email footer, and revisit the winners post afterward to see how the result fell. Owners in Apple Valley, Lakeville and Prior Lake who treat the poll as a month-long reminder rather than a last-day scramble tend to give readers more time to remember them, and the January wording gives the whole month to work with.