Best in BID Awards (Downtown Spokane): How Voting Works & How to Win

What are the Best in BID Awards in downtown Spokane?

The Downtown Spokane Partnership, known as DSP, announced "Fourth Annual 2026 Best in BID Awards" through a news post on its website. The sub-headline says that public nominations open January 2 to celebrate standout downtown businesses and leaders, and the opening text adds that DSP will launch the fourth annual awards on January 2. The site footer lists a Spokane, WA, office with weekday hours, and a copyright line for the Partnership.

The wording of the announcement is worth reading closely. "Standout downtown businesses and leaders" names kinds of honoree, so a nominee can be a company or a person who helps shape the downtown. That mix separates the awards from a pure restaurant or shop poll, where only businesses compete, and it gives supporters more room to nominate a manager, an organizer or a longtime figure alongside storefronts. The Partnership also states that it will launch the fourth annual awards, which frames the program as a recurring fixture of its calendar.

The awards are a recognition program with a public layer. Nominations come from the public, finalists are selected, and the finalists then advance to a public vote. The text available here does not name any category, any past winner or any prize, so the awards are described only by their purpose and their two stages.

What are the dates for nominations and public voting?

The announcement prints both windows for the 2026 cycle. The public nomination period runs from January 2 through January 12. After nominations, finalists will be selected and advance to public voting, which takes place January 14 through January 25. Those ranges sit in the same month and leave a short gap for selecting finalists between the close of nominations and the opening of the vote.

The 2024 cycle is confirmed as an earlier ballot, though the text available here prints no dates for it. Hours of day, a daily vote rule and the finalist announcement date are not given; the organizer has not published them in the available text, so confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How does a supporter take part in each stage?

The first stage is a nomination. Anyone who wants to honor a downtown business or leader nominates during the nomination period, and the nominee must then be selected as a finalist. The second stage is the vote, where the public chooses among the finalists. A supporter who skips nominations can still vote at the second stage.

The two-stage design has a practical effect on timing. Nominations arrive first and are open to the public, so the pool of finalists reflects whom people choose to put forward in the nomination window. Voting then narrows the field, which means a nominee's supporters have chances to show up: first to nominate, and again to vote. A nominee who plans for both moments is better placed than a nominee who waits for the vote alone.

The announcement does not describe the ballot form, an account step or a per-person limit. The practical routine is to watch the Partnership's website for the finalist list, then vote during the January window. Because the nomination period is short and the voting period follows soon after it closes, businesses benefit from asking customers to nominate on the first day and to vote on the first day of the finalist window.

How does it compare with other ballots in Washington State?

The siblings on this site are regional readers' programs: Best of 425 serves the Eastside, Cascade's Best serves its own market, Best of Clark County serves that county, Best of Snohomish County serves its readers, Best of Western Washington and Best of the Best Northwest Readers' Choice complete the set.

Seen next to those programs, the downtown awards have a tighter frame. A county or regional readers' poll invites votes for restaurants, services and shops across a wide area, so a small business competes with many others for visibility. In a downtown district awards program, the pool of nominees is limited to the downtown, and the audience that cares is the people who work, shop and live around it. The Partnership's model also separates recognition from popularity by adding the nomination stage in front of the vote, which gives each program a different feel from the sibling polls.

The Best in BID Awards differ because a downtown organization runs them, because they follow a nominate-then-vote structure, and because the geography is a single downtown district in Spokane rather than a county or a region. Readers comparing nearby programs can open Best of 425, Cascade's Best or Best of Western Washington.

How can a downtown business gather support?

With two short windows, timing is the whole plan. A business can ask customers to nominate on January 2 and to vote once finalists are announced. The votes guide covers outreach for public ballots, and the best business votes page describes paid support for business awards in general terms.

The Partnership prints no statement on outside help, so its announcement decides what counts. A business considering any paid route should read the legal position page and the announcement together, since the organizer's wording decides which votes stand.

A workable calendar has four beats. On January 2, send a message to regular customers asking them to nominate. Through January 12, share the nomination reminder in the shop, on social pages and in any newsletter. When finalists are named, announce the news and point people to the voting page. During January 14 through January 25, send a reminder midweek and another near the end. Because a downtown audience is local, a window sign that mentions the awards can reach people who walk past every day, and a thank-you note after the results closes the loop for the next cycle.