Best of Asheville: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is Best of Asheville and who runs it?

Best of Asheville is an annual community choice awards contest serving Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville Media Group presents the program in partnership with Lusso Realty, and the company's news outlet 828newsNOW carries announcements around each run, from the opening of voting through to the winners coverage.

The format is the classic best-of model: residents nominate and then vote for the local businesses, organizations and community leaders they want recognized. Bestofavl.com, a domain owned by Asheville Media Group itself, carries the whole contest alongside a magazine, free marketing materials for participating businesses, a winners section and a shop. The official rules sit at bestofavl.com/official-rules/.

Who stands behind the ballot

Asheville Media Group is a local media company whose portfolio includes 828newsNOW, and it presents the contest under the Best of Asheville name. Lusso Realty is named as the presenting partner. That pairing of a publisher and a local sponsor anchors the program firmly to one market: the program's title, the domain and the news coverage all carry the Asheville name.

Which Best of Asheville editions are confirmed, and when did the 2026 windows run?

Asheville Media Group's contest has two documented editions, 2025 and 2026, and the coverage on 828newsNOW describes the program as an annual community choice awards contest. On that cadence the next run would land in 2027.

The 2026 calendar was printed on the contest's own dates page in two blocks. Nominations opened on Wednesday, May 21st at 12:00 pm and stayed open until Wednesday, June 11th at 05:00 pm. Public voting followed, beginning Wednesday, June 18th at 12:00 pm and ending Wednesday, July 2nd at 05:00 pm. The ballot spans businesses, organizations and community leaders, although Asheville Media Group has never printed a total category figure on its rules page.

What the published material leaves open is the competitive structure behind those dates: nothing summarizes whether nominees face elimination rounds or how a supporter's eligibility to participate is verified; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

The editions on paper

How does a supporter cast a vote on the Best of Asheville ballot?

Nominees reach the ballot through the community. Once the nomination period finishes, the names of nominated businesses, people and places in each category are finalized, and that finalized list becomes the official voting ballot. The field is supplied by supporters themselves during the nomination stage.

Casting a vote is then governed by one printed rule: voters are permitted to vote in each category once per day. In practice a supporter picks a category, selects the nominee they back and submits that choice; the next day, the same action is available again in the same category and in every other one. Because Asheville Media Group states that rule in plain language on its official rules page, a nominee can quote it verbatim when encouraging customers or staff to return.

The practical consequence is that consistency beats bursts. A supporter who returns day after day contributes far more to a nominee than one who votes enthusiastically on a single afternoon and forgets the ballot afterwards. Every category a backer cares about can receive a fresh mark each day the ballot is open.

How does Best of Asheville compare with other North Carolina ballots?

North Carolina readers have a crowded menu of public ballots, and each occupies a different lane. The statewide Best of North Carolina contest sweeps the entire state rather than a single market. Charlotte Magazine Best of the Best Awards ties recognition to a city magazine's brand, and the Daily Reflector Best Of Pitt County puts a county paper behind its local favorites.

Fayetteville runs its own Community's Choice Awards, while the 2025 Diamond Awards and the 910Preps Fans' Choice Boys Soccer Player of the Year pull the format toward sports honors.

One further distinction sits with the publisher: Asheville Media Group owns 828newsNOW, so nomination openings, voting launches and winner announcements travel through a news outlet the same company controls, and Lusso Realty ties the program to a local business partner rather than a national brand.

Best of Asheville differs from all of the others in scope: it is a citywide business recognition program whose organizer hosts the vote on its own domain instead of renting a polling platform. A reader weighing which of these ballots deserves a daily click should match the ballot to what they want to honor, a favorite hometown establishment or a standout athlete, and only one of the six is built entirely around Asheville businesses and community figures.

How can a nominee strengthen support across the Best of Asheville window?

Because the daily allowance refreshes every day, the campaigns that rise on this ballot are the ones built on repetition. Practical moves that fit the printed rule include asking regular customers to make the ballot part of their morning routine, reminding staff which categories the business competes in, and posting a short countdown reminder as the close approaches. None of that asks for anything beyond the vote every supporter may already cast.

Outside help comes in two forms. Organized outreach guides, including this site's tactics for earning more votes, apply to any public ballot. Paid support is also a market: services sell votes for community awards, and nominees considering that route can start from the award-vote service overview and weigh it against what the official rules permit. Asheville Media Group's published summary takes no position on purchased votes either way, so the rules page remains the document to check before spending.