Westerly Sun Reader's Choice: How Voting Works & How to Win

What's confirmed: two editions, and a July 16 - September 14 window

Second Street's own listing for Reader's Choice, the readers'-choice ballot for Westerly, Rhode Island, states a single combined nomination-and-vote window: open July 16, 2026, running through September 14. RI Media Group, publisher of the Westerly Sun, organizes the program through the Second Street platform rather than a homegrown voting system, and only two editions are confirmed behind it so far, 2020 and 2026.

Beyond that dated window, the listing goes quiet. No category roster appears, no per-voter cap is stated, and no separate eligibility rule is published anywhere in what Second Street carries for this market. The listing's own promotion type, a combined nomination-and-voting ballot, suggests Reader's Choice does not split into a distinct later voting-only stage the way some network-wide readers'-choice programs elsewhere do, though that too is worth checking directly once the current window closes.

Treat that last row plainly rather than filling in a guess: confirm on the live ballot each cycle, since a program with only two dated editions confirmed so far has not yet settled into a fixed annual shape the way some readers'-choice programs elsewhere have.

One of several RI Media Group ballots sharing this address

RI Media Group's own Second Street feed lists more than one active ballot at once, and Reader's Choice is only one of them. A separate listing, SRI / IND Readers' Choice, runs on the identical July 16 through September 14 window under the same organizer, and a third, Call & Times Community Choice, opened two days later on the same platform. All three sit at the same westerlysun.secondstreetapp.com address, each with its own distinct nomination page and its own separate results.

Why the exact web address matters for a Westerly nomination

A nomination logged under Reader's Choice carries no weight toward the six programs above, and a link copied from a different RI Media Group ballot lands a supporter on the wrong page entirely. Typing westerlysun.secondstreetapp.com/Readers-Choice-2026 directly, rather than trusting whichever result a search happens to surface, keeps a Westerly campaign pointed at its own ballot.

Two editions, six years apart, and what that means for planning

2020 and 2026 are the only two years confirmed for Reader's Choice, with nothing published bridging the gap between them. That leaves a Westerly business with a thinner history to study than a program that has run every single year in a row, and it argues for planning around the dated window that is actually confirmed rather than assuming a fixed annual rhythm.

What stays consistent across both known editions is the platform itself: Second Street, run by RI Media Group, at the same westerlysun.secondstreetapp.com address. A supporter who nominated a business here in 2020 would recognize the same basic mechanics running the 2026 edition, even without a confirmed year in between. Whether that six-year gap reflects a pause in the program, a change in which vendor Westerly's newspaper used, or simply a gap in what Second Street's own listings preserve is not something either page states, and guessing at the reason adds nothing a business actually needs before September 14.

Real customer outreach, repeated across the whole stretch rather than saved for the last few days, is the direct route to building support for a ballot this specific. Sending the same handful of supporters back to westerlysun.secondstreetapp.com two or three times across that window tends to matter more than a single mass appeal on one day. Award-vote campaign planning covers how to structure that kind of outreach for a readers'-choice ballot shaped like this one, and is buying votes legal is worth checking before a business commits real budget to a program whose full history is not yet fully published.