Best of Kittitas 2026 Winners: How Voting Works & How to Win

What Best of Kittitas is and who runs it

Most Washington ballots in this family answer to metro dailies or television stations. Best of Kittitas does not. It belongs to the Ellensburg Daily Record, a community newspaper in Ellensburg, Washington, and its scope is the Kittitas region the paper covers rather than a metro area or the whole state. That local footing is the first thing that separates it from the siblings listed further down this page.

The organizer hosts every edition on Second Street, the ballot platform behind a large share of American newspaper readers' choice contests. The listing for this program is typed as a Ballot/NominationAndVotingBallot, the Second Street format that folds nomination and voting into a single promotion, so a supporter can put a name forward and vote for favorites in the same flow.

The page named Best of Kittitas 2026 Winners is the results face of the 2026 round. It is not the live voting ballot. The voting ballot for 2026 ran under the name Best of Kittitas 2026! on the same Second Street account, and once it closed the Daily Record posted the winners listing on June 3, 2026. The same publisher also runs seasonal sweepstakes on the same platform, which is a common pattern for community papers but distinct from the ballot itself.

The published dates for Best of Kittitas

Three edition years are confirmed for the program: 2024, 2025 and 2026. Promotion rows for Best of Kittitas appear on the Daily Record's Second Street host in each of those years, and with multiple editions on file the program counts as annual. Nothing published states an edition earlier than 2024.

The 2026 cycle ran in two parts. The voting ballot, listed under the name Best of Kittitas 2026!, opened April 13, 2026 and closed May 29, 2026. The winners listing followed on June 3, 2026, opening and closing on the same day. Across the editions, the platform date range runs from April 17, 2024 to June 3, 2026, so voting has landed in spring every year the program has run. If the pattern holds, a next edition would fall in 2027, though the Daily Record has not announced 2027 dates.

Two parts of the picture are missing from what the publisher shows. The winners page carries no category roster, and nothing alongside the results names any limit on how often a person may vote or any eligibility condition; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. Whether the 2024, 2025 and 2026 rounds used identical category lists is likewise not printed anywhere the organizer publishes.

Every results and voting page for the program has been closed since June 3, 2026, so the dates above are the complete published picture for the 2026 cycle.

How a supporter votes in Best of Kittitas

Best of Kittitas is a public-vote program: the outcome is decided by whoever the ballot admits, and the published format involves no fee to take part. On a Second Street nomination-and-voting ballot, the supporter's path is a short one. The voter reaches the ballot page, registers an email address or signs in, works through the categories the Daily Record has published for that cycle, picks a local favorite in each, and submits. Any per-person or per-day rule is stated on the live form rather than on the results page, which is why the instructions shown at voting time are the ones that count.

Right now there is no live ballot to vote on. The 2026 round closed May 29, 2026 and the winners listing that replaced it is a closed results page, so the literal voting mechanic can only be exercised when the Daily Record opens the next round. Because every confirmed edition since 2024 has voted in spring, the sensible habit is to check the paper's Second Street host in the spring months and follow whichever ballot address the publisher posts for that year.

Businesses named on the ballot are picked by the same public, not chosen by the newspaper. That is what makes reader outreach, not the publishing schedule, the thing a nominee can actually affect, and it is why the sharing and reminder tactics covered in our votes guide apply here in their ordinary local form.

How Best of Kittitas sits beside its Washington siblings

Six Washington readers' choice programs appear alongside this one, and the contrast is mostly about who publishes them and how much ground each covers. Best of Western Washington is a KING 5 television property with a statewide-west reach. Best of 425 speaks to the Bellevue and Eastside market. Best of Clark County and Best of Snohomish County belong to larger dailies in their own regions. Cascade's Best and Best of the Best Northwest Readers' Choice round out the set.

Best of Kittitas is the most local of the group on every axis. Its organizer is a community daily in Ellensburg rather than a metro newsroom or a broadcaster, its name points at one county-sized region, and its voting windows have run about six weeks each spring. The sibling ballots answer to their own publishers, and a vote, a nomination or a win on any of them carries no weight toward Best of Kittitas.

The practical difference for a business or a supporter is focus. A Kittitas-region favorite competes against neighbors the Daily Record's readers already know, while a statewide ballot buries the same business in a far larger field. Nominees weighing where their outreach pays off can use our award-votes reference to compare how these readers' choice programs are structured.

Strengthening support for a Best of Kittitas nominee

Because this ballot is decided entirely by public votes, support for a nominee is built the way the format rewards: by reaching the Daily Record's own audience. A business on the ballot in Ellensburg can print the ballot link, ask regulars in person, and post reminders during the spring voting window while the form is open. Nothing published by the organizer addresses outside help in this contest, so the live ballot's own instructions are the boundary a nominee works within.

The results-page gap matters here too. Since the publisher shows no stated limit on how often a person may vote in this program, a push plan should not assume a daily-vote allowance the ballot has not printed. For the general market around ballots like this one, see our service page, which describes purchasing options without promising any result.