For This Hudson Valley Firefighters As Sexiest Vegan: How Voting Works & How to Win

What this ballot is and who stands behind it

This program began as a station post, not a standalone contest site. WKXP, the country station behind hudsonvalleycountry.com, published a piece under the headline Vote for This Hudson Valley Firefighter as Sexiest Vegan, asking its Hudson Valley, New York audience to back a local firefighter nominated for PETA's Sexiest Vegan Next Door award. The nominee is Kevin Duffy of Yonkers, whom PETA went on to name the male 2019 Sexiest Vegan Next Door, news the station covered in a follow-up on the same domain.

So the arrangement has three layers. PETA runs the national award and owns the rules. WKXP promotes a local nominee to its listeners and gives the push a home on its site. The voting itself happens on PETA's side rather than on the station's pages, which is why the station's URL functions as a promotional doorway rather than a ballot form.

That makes this program unusual among New York public votes, which tend to be broad readers-choice surveys run by a publisher across many local businesses. Here the vertical is a single-person award, the audience is a country-radio listenership, and the subject is an individual nominee rather than a roster of shops and services.

The dated span and what the station leaves unstated

The clearest dated span attached to this program is the 2019 voting window: April 23 through May 17, printed on the station's post as the period during which voting was open. That span is the anchor for everything else on the page, because it is the only window WKXP has dated in print.

Beyond that cycle, the ballot address has been live in 2019 and again in every year from 2021 onward through 2026, with 2020 the missing year, so the program reads as an annual fixture with a gap. Whether each of those years carried the same nominee, the same window or the same format is not stated on the station's page. If the pattern holds, a further cycle would fall in 2027, though the station has printed no date for it.

WKXP's post names no category list and sets out no rule covering repeat voting or who may take part; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. The same holds for any later window dates, since the post's printed span belongs to the 2019 edition and the station has not restated it for subsequent years.

How a supporter actually votes today

Supporting the nominee is a short chain of steps, and the important link sits off the station's domain. A supporter opens the WKXP post at hudsonvalleycountry.com, reads the appeal for the Hudson Valley firefighter, and follows the direction to vote at PETA.org. In the 2019 cycle the post reminded readers they had until May 13th to cast that PETA.org vote, a close that fell inside the wider printed window.

No login, no registration step and no fee are described on the station's page. The mechanics beyond the click through to PETA.org are PETA's to set, and the station post does not restate them, so a supporter should expect PETA's own ballot presentation rather than a station-branded form.

What a supporter controls locally is reach. Sharing the post with other Hudson Valley listeners, asking friends directly rather than broadcasting a single time, and doing all of it early enough that reminders land before the closing date are the levers the station's page implies. Because the vote happens on PETA's side, any question about how ballots are counted, or what happens to irregular activity, belongs to PETA's rules rather than to WKXP's post.

How this ballot sits beside its New York neighbours

Within this site's New York coverage, this program sits beside a family of broad best-of ballots: Best of Brooklyn, Best of Hudson Valley, Best of New York City, Best of Queens, Best of the Bronx and Best of Westchester. Those six are readers-choice surveys in which a whole market nominates and then votes across many local businesses, each answering to its own publisher.

This ballot is the odd shape in the set. It is a station post championing a single nominee for a national award, the market is the Hudson Valley rather than a city borough, and the organizer is a country radio station rather than a city magazine. A reader who lands here expecting a long category list will find instead a single appeal about a firefighter, while a reader who wants the wider Hudson Valley survey should head to the Best of Hudson Valley page.

The two complement each other rather than compete. The station post is narrow and personal, built around Kevin Duffy's candidacy and the station's relationship with its listeners. The magazine survey is broad and commercial, built around categories that span the whole market. A supporter of the firefighter has no reason to choose between them, since the award push and the readers survey measure different things entirely.

Strengthening support for the nominee

Because this ballot routes through PETA.org, the useful work happens before the click. A supporter who wants the Hudson Valley firefighter to move up PETA's leaderboard does best to treat the station post as the rallying point: share it while the window is open, ask friends directly rather than posting a single broadcast, and return to PETA.org as often as its own rules allow.

WKXP's post says nothing about outside help, so the governing text is PETA's contest rules, and any push that looks automated puts the nominee's standing at risk under those rules. The station's own credibility is tied to the campaign, which is another reason its page keeps the appeal personal and local.

For tactics that stay inside a public vote's spirit, see how to get more votes online, and for the broader question of paid support in contests like this, award-vote support is covered separately from the legality question.