Coshocton Scarecrow Town: How Voting Works & How to Win

What Coshocton Scarecrow Town is and who runs it

Coshocton Scarecrow Town is a fall best-of ballot for the community of Coshocton, Ohio. Supporters choose a favorite among scarecrow scenes built and displayed across town during the autumn season, alongside the creative community displays, contests and fall fun the programme's own pages describe. The organizer is Coshocton, OH tourism and local media, and the vote itself is carried on YourOhioNews, the local news outlet whose Coshocton section hosts the story page.

Clary Gardens is the institution behind the tradition. Scarecrow Town has been a tradition at Clary Gardens and in Coshocton since 2016, and Mary McMullen said Clary Gardens invites community members and local businesses to construct scarecrow scenes all over town. That makes the ballot unusual among Ohio vote programmes: the nominees are not businesses competing in service categories but hand-built seasonal displays scattered through a small city, and the audience is anyone who lives in, works in or visits Coshocton during the display season.

The ballot page itself is a story on YourOhioNews titled "Vote for your favorite scarecrow in Coshocton's Scarecrow Town," and the voting prompt sits on that page rather than on a separate contest portal.

The 2026 dates and what the ballot does not publish

One edition of Coshocton Scarecrow Town is confirmed here: the 2026 run, which was live on the YourOhioNews ballot page in late September 2026. The published voting window for that edition runs October 1st through the 27th, per the programme's own pages, so the whole public vote sits inside a single October stretch. Builders work on an earlier clock: scarecrows or scarecrow scenes registered on or before September 15th cost $5.00, which is how Clary Gardens assembles the lineup of displays before supporters begin choosing.

This is the first confirmed edition; whether it returns next year is not yet published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

What the programme's pages do not spell out matters too. No roster of ballot categories appears anywhere on the material behind the vote; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. The named rule set is also short: beyond the line that each person can vote for as many scarecrows as they'd like, no eligibility terms for voters are spelled out on the published material. Because the lineup is built from community and business registrations due September 15th, the practical roster is the set of scarecrow scenes standing in Coshocton when October arrives.

How a supporter votes in the Coshocton ballot

The mechanic is deliberately simple. A supporter opens the YourOhioNews story for the programme, reads about the Scarecrow Town tradition and the displays around Coshocton, and follows the ballot prompt to choose a favorite scarecrow. There is no entry form, no nomination round for voters and no payment at the point of voting. The organizer's published rule is quoted directly on the programme's pages: "Each person can vote for as many scarecrows as you'd like." That single sentence is the whole stated rulebook, which means a supporter is free to back more than one scene, and nothing in the published material asks voters to create an account first.

Anyone who wants to see the nominees in person can do so the way the programme intends: the displays are scarecrow scenes built by community members and local businesses all over Coshocton, so a drive or walk through town doubles as a tour of the ballot. Clary Gardens anchors the tradition, and the surrounding displays give supporters a reason to engage with the entries rather than picking blindly from a list.

For builders, the path is different: register the scarecrow or scene by the September 15th date at the $5.00 rate, construct the display, and then rely on the October voting window to collect support from the community.

Where this ballot sits among Ohio vote programmes

Coshocton Scarecrow Town is a hyperlocal entry in a state full of broader reader ballots. Its confirmed siblings on this site include 97.1 The Fan Pizza Madness Columbus, Akron Community's Choice Awards, Best in Ohio Business Awards, Best of Ohio, CBUS Top Picks Community Choice Awards and Best of Cincinnati. Those programmes ask readers to sort businesses into categories across a metro or the whole state. The Coshocton ballot does the opposite: it is one seasonal subject, the scarecrow, in one small city, judged by the people who walk past the displays every day.

That shape changes the arithmetic of support. A statewide best-of ballot spreads attention across dozens of businesses; Scarecrow Town concentrates a whole community's autumn attention on a single YouOhioNews page. A scene builder in Coshocton competes for the same neighbours' attention that Clary Gardens and the local tourism and media organizers have cultivated since 2016, and the winner is decided by whoever turns that neighbourhood goodwill into clicks on the October ballot. For context on how larger Ohio ballots run, the Best of Ohio page is the widest-scope sibling.

Strengthening support for a Coshocton scarecrow scene

Support in this programme comes down to turning local visibility into ballot clicks inside the October window. The organizer's only published rule works in a builder's favor: each person can vote for as many scarecrows as they'd like, so a single supporter can back a favorite business scene and a favorite family scene without choosing between them. That makes word-of-mouth asks unusually efficient in Coshocton, a community where the displays themselves are the advertising. A business that built a scene should tell every customer who walks past it that the vote is live, free and takes seconds on the YourOhioNews page.

The organizer publishes no guidance on outside help and no paid promotion for this market is listed on the host site, so builders planning a larger push should start from what is already true about the ballot: a plain public vote, one published window, and a rule that welcomes multiple picks per person. For a fuller playbook on outreach that fits small community ballots, see our votes guide, and for the broader legal framing behind any purchased support, the legality page covers the position plainly.