Las Cruces Sun-News Male Athlete of the Year: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Las Cruces Sun-News Male Athlete of the Year?

The Las Cruces Sun-News Male Athlete of the Year is a public online poll from the Las Cruces Sun-News, the newspaper that serves the Las Cruces area of southern New Mexico. Readers use the poll to choose the male athlete of the year from a list of nominees, and the ballot runs on Crowdsignal.

The series is yearly. Its 2025 and 2026 ballots are both listed, and the 2025 ballot is titled as the Las Cruces Sun-News Male Athlete of the Year, which gives the newspaper's own name to the poll. The ballot is a male-only award, so readers searching for a girls or mixed poll should look at a different listing.

For the wider state context, the New Mexico contests hub lists the other athlete polls that run across the state.

When does the Las Cruces male athlete vote run?

The timing the text supports places the voting window in the first half of the year. The 2025 edition appears on ballots dated from January through May, and the live cycle for 2026 falls at the same poll.fm address. The newspaper's own calendar for each year is not reproduced on the poll text, so the window is best read as a pattern rather than as a set of dates.

Opening day, closing day and nomination window for each year are left out of the ballot text. The next edition's start date is also not published. Confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

The timeline above lists every timing point this series can support.

How does a supporter vote on the ballot today?

On the current ballot, the nominees appear as answers on a single poll page. Each answer carries the athlete's sport and school, so a reader can match a choice to a team. The supporter reads the list, selects the nominee, and submits the choice on the page. The poll is an open public vote, and the page is the only place the choices are shown.

The leading nominee on the 2025 ballot drew 35% of the votes, which came to 18,042 votes in total. Those figures show how a public poll on this platform can concentrate support, though they describe a single closed ballot and not a benchmark for later years.

For general steps on gathering votes in public polls, the get more votes online guide explains the common approaches without tying them to a single ballot.

How does this ballot sit beside other New Mexico polls?

The Las Cruces ballot is one of several New Mexico athlete polls, and the nearest comparison is the KRQE Mesa Tractor Athlete of the Week, which runs as a weekly poll rather than a yearly award. The state also lists the New Mexico High School Football Star of the Week, which covers a single sport on a shorter cycle.

The difference is the publisher and the cycle. The Las Cruces Sun-News runs an annual male award for the whole area, while the weekly listings cover short windows and different organizers. Readers who want a sport-by-sport comparison will find the table below more useful than a general state label.

How can supporters strengthen a nominee's position on the ballot?

Support from outside the community is governed by the poll's own terms, so a supporter should start with what the Las Cruces Sun-News says there. Sharing the poll link with the athlete's family, team and school community is a legitimate way to draw attention, and it keeps the vote with real readers in the area.

Some supporters weigh paid routes, and the sports poll guide explains how such services are described in the sports fan poll votes section. Whatever route is chosen, the newspaper and the platform decide which votes count. Anyone weighing a paid route should compare the terms first, then check the all US contests index for comparable polls before committing.

A nominee's family and coaches often ask whether the ballot can be moved by activity beyond the community. The text sets out no rule on this point, so the dependable plan is to keep the link visible in the places a supporter already reads, such as team newsletters and school channels. A steady, open push tends to produce a result the newspaper can stand behind, and it avoids a later dispute over which votes were counted.