Best of Newberg: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is Best of Newberg and who runs it?

The Newberg Graphic, the newspaper headquartered at 500 E. Hancock St. in Newberg, Oregon, organizes Best of Newberg as its community favorites program. The paper asks residents to celebrate the local businesses, organizations and experiences they rate highest, and the program's promotion copy describes categories ranging from dining and retail to professional services and community organizations. A placing on this ballot carries weight precisely because every entry is a neighbor's operation rather than a name on some national list.

The balloting runs on Second Street, the contest platform whose app domain carries the paper's own name at thenewberggraphic.secondstreetapp.com. The entry is registered as a NominationAndVotingBallot, a format that works in two passes: supporters first nominate favorites, and the leading nominees then compete for votes in a second round. That structure matters to anyone campaigning, because the nomination stage and the voting stage reward different kinds of outreach.

Where the program sits

As a format, Best of Newberg is a reader-driven recognition ballot of the kind Oregon publishers routinely put before their audiences. Its distinct trait is focus: the whole program anchors to Newberg alone, so a nomination or a win reads as a neighborhood distinction rather than a metro-wide one. The paper's site presents the program beside its other community features, which include Amazing Kids, Community Heroes and Salute to Veterans nominations, newsletters, classifieds and special sections.

When does Best of Newberg voting open and close?

The clearest dated trail begins with the platform entry. The Best of Newberg 26 ballot is registered on Second Street with a window of December 2, 2025 through February 14, 2026, and that entry now stands closed. The publisher's own Best of Newberg page prints a second rhythm: a nomination round from March 1 through March 31, followed by a voting round from April 1 to April 15. Read together, the two trails show a program that moves through a nomination pass and a voting pass, with the printed spring stretch carrying the voting decision, though the exact live dates deserve a fresh look before anyone plans around them.

On history, 2025 is the only edition year published for Best of Newberg.

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

Details campaigners should know

After nominations close, the top five nominees in a category move forward into the voting round, so reaching the voting stage is itself a milestone worth planning for. The ballot otherwise posts no per-supporter vote limit, no repeat-voting cadence and no eligibility terms for nominees or voters; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How does a supporter cast a vote in Best of Newberg?

The mechanics stay deliberately plain. Everything happens at the address the Newberg Graphic registered for this program, https://thenewberggraphic.secondstreetapp.com/Best-of-Newberg-26. From there a supporter moves through the category sections and selects or enters the nominee to recognize. Because the entry is typed as a NominationAndVotingBallot, the form's behavior shifts with the stage: during a nomination pass a supporter puts a favorite forward by name, and during a voting pass the same person chooses among the nominees already listed. Nothing on the ballot asks for payment, and nothing printed requires creating an account before submitting a choice.

Devices and frequency

The form presents itself like any ordinary site, so a phone browser copes with it just as easily as a desktop one. Frequency is the open question: the publisher prints no rule on how often the same person may submit during a voting round, which leaves repeat visits governed by whatever the live form allows at the time.

For a nominee's side of the equation, timing is everything. Outreach aimed at the nomination pass decides which favorites reach the voting stage, and outreach during the voting pass converts that placement into a finish. Supporters who want a fuller walkthrough of outreach habits on community ballots can read the guide to getting more votes online, which covers the same dynamics this ballot's two-stage format rewards.

How does Best of Newberg compare with Oregon's other readers' choice ballots?

Oregon carries a crowded field of best-of programs, and Best of Newberg sits at the hyperlocal end of it. The closest comparisons on this site are the Bend Magazine Readers' Choice Awards, Best of Eugene, Best of Portland, the Best of the Mid-Valley Community's Choice Awards, the Eugene Community's Choice Awards and the Coast Weekend Readers' Choice Awards in Astoria. Each is settled by public votes, and each belongs to a publisher or media brand rather than to an outside polling company.

What makes the Newberg ballot its own case

Three traits set it apart. Geography comes first: the program serves one city outright, while the Eugene and Portland ballots absorb far larger markets and the Mid-Valley program spreads across its own wider region. Cadence comes second: the recorded window on Second Street ran through mid-February, and each neighbor's dates should be verified on its own page rather than assumed to match. Format comes third: the NominationAndVotingBallot structure builds a nomination stage into the program itself, so a favorite has to survive a first cut before any voting begins.

One further piece of context from the same platform account: the Newberg Graphic's Second Street presence also hosts multiple sweepstakes promotions alongside the ballot, so the paper runs reader contests as an ongoing part of its engagement rather than as a single annual event.

How can a nominated Newberg business gather more support?

Support on this ballot is earned inside the windows the publisher prints: the March-format nomination pass and the April-format voting pass. A business chasing recognition does best by asking its own customers directly, sharing the ballot address at the counter and in order confirmations, and posting reminders while a round is open, because the top five cutoff means every nomination counts before the voting stage even arrives.

On outside help, the Newberg Graphic has printed no statement about third-party vote services for this ballot, and no per-submitter rule is displayed on the form. Paid vote packages exist for community ballots of this shape, and background reading lives at the award-votes page and at the legality guide. No paid support, from this site or from any other provider, arrives with a promise of winning; the ballot's own printed windows and rules always come first.