KRQE Best of the Land of Enchantment Awards: How Voting Works & How to Win

What are the BOLOEs and who runs them?

The Best of the Land of Enchantment Awards is a public-vote honors program for New Mexico businesses, organized by KRQE News 13, the television station based in Albuquerque. Around the station the name shortens to the BOLOEs; the contests hub at krqe.com urges readers to "Nominate a business now in the BOLOEs", so the nickname is how the program is actually addressed rather than a fan coinage.

The ballot itself lives on the station's Second Street account. The 2025 address is https://krqe.secondstreetapp.com/Best-of-the-Land-of-Enchantment-Awards-2025, and the promotion is registered there as a Ballot/NominationAndVotingBallot, a format that puts nominating and voting in the same flow instead of splitting them across two separate pushes. That single detail shapes the whole campaign: a business first has to be put forward, and only then can supporters pile up votes behind it.

Item	Detail
Program	Best of the Land of Enchantment Awards, the BOLOEs
Organizer	KRQE News 13, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Platform	Second Street at krqe.secondstreetapp.com
Format	Ballot/NominationAndVotingBallot, nomination and voting combined
Vertical	Best-of awards for businesses
Latest window	May 12 to August 23, 2025

New Mexico is the market, and Albuquerque is the anchor because that is where the station broadcasts. Nothing about the program ties it to a single town inside the state.

When has the BOLOEs ballot run, and what is still unknown?

The program has run twice, in 2024 and 2025, each time as its own dated ballot on the same Second Street host; the 2024 address, https://krqe.secondstreetapp.com/Best-of-the-Land-of-Enchantment-Awards-2024, follows the same naming pattern as the 2025 one. Taken together, the two editions place the program squarely in the New Mexico summer: the earliest opening across them fell on June 3, 2024, and the latest close on August 23, 2025.

The 2025 window is the better documented half of the pair. It opened on May 12, 2025 and closed on August 23, 2025, and that window has now passed.

Edition	Window	Status
2024	Opened June 3, 2024	First run; its own closing day was never printed beside the opening
2025	May 12 to August 23, 2025	Completed; nominations and votes sat in one window

What the ballot has never spelled out is the fine print: neither edition's page carried a category roster or a cadence for repeat voting, so confirm on the live ballot each cycle. No third summer edition in 2026 has been announced either.

How does a supporter actually vote in the BOLOEs?

With the 2025 window closed, the first step for a supporter today is patience: the ballot accepts submissions only while an edition is live. Once a window opens, the flow follows directly from the promotion's format. A supporter opens the current address under krqe.secondstreetapp.com, picks a category, and either nominates a business into it or backs a business already listed. Because nomination and voting share one ballot, a first-time visitor can complete both acts in a single session.

The submission happens through the ordinary Second Street form on the page; no app download and no separate portal sit between the supporter and the vote. Supporters who want to keep backing a favorite through the summer should expect to return to the page repeatedly, since a window stretching from late spring into late August rewards steady repetition over a single burst. Whether the form applies any throttle on repeat submissions is part of the fine print neither edition has printed, so treat the live form's behavior as the working rule.

The sequence in practice

Open the edition's address on krqe.secondstreetapp.com while the window runs. Choose the category that matters to you. Nominate a New Mexico business into it or select one already on the list. Submit before the closing date, because a vote sent after the window shuts has nowhere to land.

Where does the BOLOEs ballot fit among New Mexico best-of contests?

Best-of ballots crowd the Albuquerque calendar. This program shares its vertical with the Albuquerque Journal Readers' Choice, Albuquerque The Magazine's Best of the City, CommunityVotes Albuquerque, the Best of Santa Fe and Best of Taos ballots, and the Edible New Mexico Local Hero Awards. Every one of those is a best-of contest, so the difference lies less in the idea than in the operator and the calendar.

KRQE News 13 stands out as the broadcast-television entry in that lineup, which matters in two ways. A television station can put the ballot in front of a broadcast audience rather than only a subscriber list, and its contest portfolio stretches past one yearly event: the same Second Street account carries the Spirit Stick 2026 series, a weekly spirit ballot whose windows run a few days at a time, such as September 28 to October 2, 2026.

Against that portfolio, the BOLOEs are the station's long-format summer event, while the Santa Fe and Taos titles bind themselves to single cities and the newspaper and magazine ballots center on Albuquerque itself. For a business choosing where to campaign, the practical reading is that the BOLOEs reward a summer-long effort, whereas the weekly Spirit Stick rounds demand fast, concentrated pushes. Both live under the same organizer, so a supporter who learns one interface can work either.

How can a nominated business widen its support during the window?

The format hands a campaign two distinct jobs. First, get on the ballot: the nomination stage decides which businesses supporters can vote for at all, so a late nomination forfeits ground in a category no matter how long the summer is. Second, keep attention alive from May through August, because a window this wide lets a rival recover from a slow start. Counter-side prompts, a mention at the register and a reminder post whenever the ballot reopens all convert everyday goodwill into submissions. Any plan that reaches beyond a business's own customer base should start from the live terms rather than from assumptions, since the station leaves that ground unstated. The general playbook for public ballots, from timing reminders to mobilizing regulars, is laid out in this guide to earning more votes online.