Downtown Burger Battle: How Voting Works & How to Win

Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. runs the Burger Battle as a tasting-then-app vote

The Downtown Burger Battle is a public vote Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. runs for participating restaurants in downtown Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Unlike a page where a visitor simply clicks a name, this vote is cast through the DTSF Digital Passport app after burger lovers try the restaurants' entries in person, with results and past winners reported on the local outlet SiouxFalls.Business.

That two-step shape, taste first, then open the app, sets the Burger Battle apart from a straightforward web ballot. Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. scores named categories through the app, flavor, patty, toppings, bun and presentation, so an entry's plating and bread matter alongside how it tastes.

A history back to 2013, and dates the page still won't name

Travel South Dakota and SiouxFalls.Business both trace the Downtown Burger Battle to 2013, and Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. called its 2025 edition the 12th annual competition. Dated pages for the Burger Battle span 2024, 2025 and 2026, a longer publicly reported history than several other cards in this batch carry, even though not every year between 2013 and 2024 has its own dated page here.

SiouxFalls.Business credited the 2025 win to a repeat name, Chef Lance, when it announced that year's results. What the announcement pages do not carry is a fixed calendar date for the next cycle: exactly when downtown restaurants sign up, when tasting runs, and when the app closes voting for the year is not printed anywhere Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. has published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How a Sioux Falls burger lover actually casts a vote

Taking part starts with the food, not a screen. A supporter visits one or more of the participating downtown Sioux Falls restaurants during the Burger Battle's run and tries the entries Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. has signed up for that year.

The actual vote happens afterward, inside the DTSF Digital Passport app, where a supporter rates what they tried across flavor, patty, toppings, bun and presentation rather than picking one single favorite. Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. caps that app at a single vote per person each day, so a supporter who tries several entries over the course of the event can return daily rather than being confined to one submission.

Because the whole mechanic runs through Downtown Sioux Falls Inc.'s own app rather than an open web form, a restaurant's realistic path to more support is getting actual customers through its doors to taste the entry, then reminding them to open the app and score it before the battle's window closes.

Where the Burger Battle sits beside Sioux Falls' other polls

Downtown Sioux Falls Inc.'s event is not the only public vote South Dakota readers can take part in, and it works differently from most of the others on this list, which run as ordinary web ballots rather than an in-person tasting paired with an app.

CommunityVotes Sioux Falls shares a city with the Burger Battle but nothing else: a different organizer, a different platform and a ballot that covers many categories rather than one food event. 605 Magazine Best of South Dakota and Best of Mitchell sit further away still, covering the whole state or a different city entirely.

Building real support for a Downtown Burger Battle entry

Because the DTSF Digital Passport app ties a vote to someone who has actually tried the food, the most direct lever for a participating restaurant is getting more real customers through the door during the Burger Battle's window, then asking each one to open the app and score what they had. Downtown Sioux Falls Inc.'s own materials do not spell out a position on paid or automated support for the app, so its published rule here is silence rather than an explicit allowance or ban.

A restaurant with regulars who already return often has a natural advantage: each visit is a fresh chance to remind a real customer to score that day's entry, within the one-vote-per-person-per-day limit Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. has made public. Building real momentum for an online ballot covers tactics that translate to an app-based vote like this one.