Hot 97.5 Bismarck-Mandan Cutest Pet: How Voting Works & How to Win

Bismarck-Mandan's cutest pet vote, run by a North Dakota radio station

Hot 97.5 Bismarck-Mandan Cutest Pet is organized by KKCT, a North Dakota radio station, and runs directly on its own site at hot975fm.com. Eight separate years carry a confirmed edition of this contest: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, with no edition confirmed for 2021 anywhere in what's published.

That's a long run for a single-station pet-photo vote, gaps and all, and it puts Bismarck-Mandan's contest well past a one-off promotion.

Whatever isn't pinned down in that table comes down to whatever hot975fm.com actually publishes once a new October round opens; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Two rounds, five finalists: the structure behind the vote

An archived description of the format on hot975fm.com lays out the process in two stages. The first round runs from a Monday, October 1, through the following Monday, October 8, at 10 a.m. The second round then narrows to the top five pets, running from that same Monday, October 8, at noon through midnight on the third Monday, October 15.

A separate description on the same site put the closing moment slightly differently: voting open through 11:59 p.m. on a fourth Monday, October 14, after five finalists were elected into that final round, essentially the same closing instant described two different ways. Neither description carries a year, so treat the two-round shape as the pattern rather than a locked calendar for the next cycle; confirm the exact day-level dates on the live ballot each cycle.

Why the round structure still matters for a pet owner planning ahead

Knowing that this contest runs in two stages, an open nominating round followed by a final round among just five finalists, is useful even without a locked date. A pet that clears the first round needs a fresh push for the second, since the field narrows sharply between rounds and earlier support doesn't automatically transfer.

The word "elected" on KKCT's own page is worth noticing too: it describes the move from an open field down to five finalists as a result the public itself decides, not a producer's pick. That framing lines up with the two-round shape found elsewhere on the same site, an open round first, a narrower one second, even though neither piece of text ties either stage to a specific year.

A pet vote, not one of North Dakota's business ballots

KKCT's cutest pet vote sits apart from the other public-vote programs listed for North Dakota, all of which judge businesses rather than pets.

CommunityVotes alone runs four separate North Dakota ballots: Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks, and Minot each get their own market, and none of the four shares a judging panel with KKCT's pet vote or with each other. A pet entered at hot975fm.com isn't competing against a business in any of those markets.

Turning two rounds into real votes

Eight confirmed years give this contest a real base of returning voters, but the two-round structure means support can't stop once the first round closes. A pet that clears the nominating stage still needs real people asking friends and neighbors again once the top five are set, since a fresh contest effectively starts over at that point.

None of that requires knowing KKCT's unpublished rules ahead of time. Ask people who actually know the pet, ask again once finalists are set, and treat the archived two-round shape as a guide rather than a fixed script for the current cycle. Building real momentum for an online ballot breaks that approach down further, and is buying votes legal is worth reading before paying for outside help on a two-round photo contest with no posted rulebook to check claims against. Buying votes online covers what that kind of paid support typically looks like for a fan-vote format shaped like this one.