Missouri Magazine Best of Summer: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Missouri Magazine Best of Summer and who runs it?

Missouri Magazine is a lifestyle publication written for readers across Missouri, and its front page spreads across arts and culture, entertainment, food and drinks, health and wellness, fashion and beauty, lodging, sports, weddings, a trending directory and a statewide events calendar. The masthead carries the tagline "Discover the Hidden Gems of Missouri: Your Guide to Exploring the Heartland," and a signup banner invites readers to grab the latest Missouri news and events along with free prizes and giveaways.

Best of Summer is the seasonal slice of that mix: a standing call for readers to name their favorite summer places and businesses statewide. Missouri Magazine publishes the ballot on its own website, so no outside polling platform sits between readers and the nominees. The working address is https://missourimagazines.com/bestofsummer/, and the 2019 page carried the heading "Best of Summer 2019" above the magazine's masthead.

Category headings printed on that 2019 page leaned hard into warm-weather life: vacation getaway spots, lakes, beaches, camps, sand, ice cream places, swimming, a marina, a resort, a hotel, swim-up bars, rooftop hangouts, a theme park, a fair, a summer bar, a local brewery, outdoor dining, an attraction and a day trip. Treat that list as a picture of a single edition rather than a permanent roster.

Which editions of the summer ballot are confirmed, and when does voting happen?

Editions are confirmed for 2019, 2023, 2025 and 2026. The earliest of those carried a plainly printed window: voting began July 24 and ended August 24, and the page told readers they could vote daily. Later cycles have gone live at that same address, with 2026 the most recent confirmation.

The summer ballot sits inside a wider franchise. Missouri Magazine's rules text describes Missouri's Best as a contest that started in 2017, a publisher FAQ states that, as of May 2023, the programme no longer holds a nomination round before balloting, and the franchise's newest announcement printed a voting window of June 1 through June 15, 2025, closing at 10 PM on June 15th.

Gaps remain. Neither a prize schedule nor a tie-break method is printed alongside the ballot, and the newest cycle's opening and closing dates are not posted in advance; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How does a supporter actually vote in the summer ballot?

The mechanics put almost no friction in front of a participant. To vote, you open the bestofsummer page on missourimagazines.com, scroll through the summer groupings, choose a favorite in every category worth caring about and submit. No app download and no separate registration step show up anywhere on the ballot itself.

Published constraints shape the exercise. The publisher's rules text allows only one vote per category per verified email, and the 2019 ballot invited participants to come back day after day while the window stayed open. Together those rules reward steady, honest traffic: an individual inbox carries limited weight in a single pass, while return visits extend it.

The same rules text adds reassurance about fairness. Missouri Magazine states that it monitors vote-stuffing and manipulation and that the ballot does not steer or influence whom a voter should choose.

How does this ballot sit beside Missouri's other reader contests?

Reader balloting thrives across Missouri, and each sibling programme on this list claims a different slice of the state: the A-List from St. Louis Magazine, Best of KC, Best of Southwest Missouri, the Reader's Choice Awards published by the Columbia Missourian, Columbia MO CommunityVotes and Feast Magazine's FEAST 50.

Those rivals divide the state by audience where Best of Summer divides it by season. The Best of KC ballot carries its home market's initials right in its title, the Best of Southwest Missouri contest speaks for the state's southwest corner, the A-List run by St. Louis Magazine answers to that magazine's own readership, Feast Magazine's FEAST 50 leans toward the dining scene, and the two Columbia titles, the Missourian's Reader's Choice Awards and Columbia MO CommunityVotes, serve that college town's news audiences.

The clearest differences are seasonality and hosting. This ballot trades in summer-specific pleasures such as lakes, swim-up bars and fairs, and Missouri Magazine stages the whole exercise on web space it controls at the bestofsummer address on missourimagazines.com. For a business with a summer rhythm, a strong showing here reads differently from a placement in a general annual guide, and the two audiences rarely overlap completely.

How can a campaign build real momentum in this summer vote?

Momentum in this vote follows its own arithmetic. Because the stated rule ties strength to verified emails and a single category choice per address, a campaign that mobilizes many distinct supporters beats a campaign that leans on a handful of repeat clicks. Ask patrons in person, by newsletter or at checkout to visit the ballot and pick your category, then to come back the next day.

Stay inside the lines the publisher has drawn: its text says manipulation is monitored, so anything resembling automated stuffing works against a nominee. For organic outreach ideas shaped to fan ballots, see the campaign tactics guide. If outside help enters the picture, read where purchased votes stand legally and compare providers at the award-votes service page before committing a budget.