Mountain Xpress Best of WNC: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is Mountain Xpress Best of WNC and who runs it?

Mountain Xpress, a North Carolina newspaper publishing at mountainx.com, stages Best of WNC as its annual readers' choice ballot for Western North Carolina. The program is a best-of ballot: instead of a single sport, a photo pool or a beauty pageant, it invites the public to pick favorite local businesses, food, services and community staples spread across the paper's coverage areas.

The ballot is served from the paper's own site. Its live form sits in the food section of mountainx.com at the address listed below, which means every instruction, category label and deadline a voter sees comes from Mountain Xpress itself rather than from a third-party polling vendor. When a window opens, the paper flags it on the news side of the site; one launch notice carried the headline "Best Of WNC: The voting has begun" and was written by Hayley Benton.

When has Best of WNC run, and when does voting open and close?

The printed window

Day-level dates come from the announcement the paper published when a recent cycle launched: voting began at noon on Wednesday, April 23 and ran through 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21. That stretch, from late April into late May, is the spring shape of the window in the cycle with printed dates. Later editions set their own opening and closing moments on the form itself.

The program's origin reaches much further back. The April 19, 1995 issue of Mountain Xpress introduced readers to the paper's "First Annual Best of WNC survey," which makes this one of the longest-running reader ballots in North Carolina. Confirmed edition years for this ballot are 2024, 2025 and 2026, and a notice marking the 2026 Awards release described the outcome "reflecting votes from thousands of residents and visitors across Western North Carolina."

What the paper does not publish away from the form is the fine print: beyond the ballot itself there is no separate category roster, no word on how many times the same supporter may return inside the window and no spelled-out eligibility terms, so confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How does a supporter cast a Best of WNC vote today?

Casting a vote is a single visit to the paper's site. During the window, a supporter opens the Best of WNC form in the food section of mountainx.com, reads the category list the form carries that year, and marks a pick in each category worth weighing in on. Completing the form and sending it before the deadline shown there completes the task.

Two practical points follow from that setup. First, because the form lives under the paper's own roof, nothing about the session depends on an external polling service; the labels, the ordering and any conditions attached to voting are whatever Mountain Xpress prints for that edition. Second, the deadline is absolute in the cycle with printed times: submissions counted only while the form stood open between the noon start and the 11:59 p.m. close. A pick sent after the form shuts has nowhere to land, so anyone invested in a category should plan around the closing moment rather than the opening one.

The same logic applies to the businesses on the ballot. A nominee that wants every possible backer heard needs those backers to arrive while the form is live, which is why an appeal timed to the window beats one scattered across the year.

Where does Best of WNC sit among North Carolina reader ballots?

North Carolina carries a crowded field of reader ballots, and Best of WNC occupies a distinctive slot in it. The statewide Best of North Carolina takes in the whole state; the Charlotte Magazine Best of the Best Awards center on that city; a Daily Reflector survey built around Pitt County serves that county's readers; and the Fayetteville Community's Choice Awards serve Fayetteville readers. Two further neighbours, the 2025 Diamond Awards and the 910Preps Fans' Choice Boys Soccer Player of the Year, pull the vertical toward honors and preps sports.

Against that backdrop, Best of WNC separates itself on scope and placement. Its reach is Western North Carolina as a whole region rather than a lone city or county, and its ballot lives in the food section path of mountainx.com, a reminder that the program grew out of the paper's food and community coverage even as it now spans the best-of landscape of Western North Carolina commerce. Where the preps polls ask fans to champion individual players, this ballot asks readers to champion the businesses they patronize.

How can a local business strengthen its Best of WNC support?

The window gives a campaign a fixed runway: a stretch from late April into late May in the cycle with printed dates, when supporters know exactly where to go. The most durable tactic for a Best of WNC nominee is a direct ask repeated often, telling customers which categories to find on the mountainx.com form and urging them to act before the closing moment. A reminder in a newsletter, a sign at the register and a pinned social post all push toward the same goal.

Because the paper attaches its own conditions to the form, a campaign should read those terms before adding outside help of any kind. The wider playbook for public ballots, including outreach that does not depend on paid support, is gathered in our votes guide, and the same principles of clear asks, easy instructions and steady reminders apply to a regional survey like this one.