Dayton Magazine Best of the Upper Valley: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is Dayton Magazine's Best of the Upper Valley?

Best of the Upper Valley is a community recognition program run by Dayton Magazine, a publication based in Dayton, Ohio. Its purpose is to celebrate businesses across the Upper Valley, the region the magazine serves, and its contenders come straight from the magazine's own editorial coverage. The ballot states plainly that its nominees were featured in the 2nd annual Best of Upper Valley feature published in Dayton Magazine, so earning a place in that feature is what puts a business in front of voters.

Voting happens on Second Street, the platform hosting the ballot at daytonmagazine.secondstreetapp.com/2nd-Annual-Best-of-the-Upper-Valley/. Everything a supporter needs sits on that single page: the division lineup, the nominees, and the submission action.

Why the feature matters

Because nominees originate in the magazine's feature rather than an open submission pool, the slate reflects Dayton Magazine's coverage choices for that cycle. A reader who wants to check whether a particular business made the cut should look at the live listings rather than assume the previous lineup carried over.

When did the Upper Valley contest run, and when does voting end?

Two cycles of the program stand confirmed: 2024 and 2025. The inaugural round arrived in 2024, and Dayton Magazine introduced it as something entirely new, writing that for the first time ever the magazine was celebrating the best the Upper Valley has to offer. That debut feature carried the byline of Bryn Dippold and the editors and was published on September 5, 2024. A year later the ballot returned under its current banner, the 2nd annual Best of the Upper Valley, fixing the program's rhythm as an annual one.

Scheduling comes off the ballot itself. The printed deadline reads "Voting will be online until June 15th," and the most recent cycle served on that page closed on June 15. No opening day appears beside the deadline, so the ballot page remains the only reliable signal for when a fresh round goes live.

Some facts a voter might expect are simply absent. Dayton Magazine publishes no roster of divisions away from the ballot; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. Voter eligibility is equally unstated, and no nomination or entry dates are printed for the rounds either.

What the confirmed years establish

With 2024 and 2025 both leaving live ballots behind, the program has shown continuity from one year to the next. The printed June 15 close belongs to the cycle the current ballot was serving; anything further out is not announced in advance.

How does a supporter cast a vote on the Upper Valley ballot?

Casting a vote takes three moves. Open the ballot at daytonmagazine.secondstreetapp.com/2nd-Annual-Best-of-the-Upper-Valley/, find the division whose nominees you intend to judge, and click the business you are honoring. Submission follows immediately, with no payment step and no download in the way.

The frequency rule is printed on the face of the ballot: "Vote once per day, per category!" That single line shapes everything about competing here. A supporter who wants the same business to gain ground returns day after day and casts a fresh choice in its division each time. Meanwhile, the per-division half of the rule means one person can honor different businesses across several divisions on the same afternoon without violating anything.

Because the rule holds each division to a single daily pick, bursts matter less than habits. A nominee whose backers show up reliably through the whole window outruns one whose supporters vote hard for a day and vanish.

Access and devices

Voting happens in the browser: laptops, tablets and phones all open the same page, and nothing in the flow changes between devices.

How does the Upper Valley ballot compare with Ohio's other best-of contests?

Ohio runs a deep bench of best-of contests, and the Upper Valley ballot holds a distinct slot in it. Statewide, Best of Ohio covers the whole map. Metro ballots give the big cities their own arenas: Cincinnati's CityBeat poll, 97.1 The Fan's Pizza Madness and the CBUS Top Picks awards in Columbus, and the Akron Community's Choice Awards. Business-focused honors such as the Best in Ohio Business Awards complete the neighborhood.

Set against those, Dayton Magazine's contest differs on sponsor, territory and tempo. Its sponsor is a city magazine rather than a radio station or an alt-weekly. Its territory is the Upper Valley, the specific region the publication covers, rather than a metro grid or all of Ohio. And its printed once-daily, per-category rule stretches competition across the full window instead of compressing it into a single push.

The common thread with every Ohio neighbor is that the public decides: no jury picks the winners, so whoever mobilizes more daily support takes the honor.

How can a nominee build stronger support in the Upper Valley vote?

A nominee's strongest lever on this ballot is the daily rule itself. Because the printed instruction allows a fresh choice in every division each day, a campaign that reminds staff, customers and friends each morning through the whole window outperforms a single announcement blast, and the ballot's printed close gives the reminder habit a clear finish line.

Breadth matters too: a business named in several divisions can collect daily support in each one, multiplying what a lone division would allow.

Dayton Magazine prints no guidance on outside help for nominees, so anyone weighing paid support should start with the general strengthening guide and the award-vote overview, then fit whatever they do inside the once-a-day, per-category frame the ballot imposes.