Best of the River Valley Reader Poll (Valley Sentinel): How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Best of the River Valley Reader Poll and who runs it?

Valley Sentinel, the newspaper serving the Spring Green area of Wisconsin, publishes the Best of the River Valley Reader Poll as a yearly call for locals to celebrate what their region does best. The paper built the project on a big-city template, "Drawing inspiration from cities like Eau Claire, Madison and Milwaukee", and pointed it squarely at the smaller River Valley community those metro polls do not serve directly. Its purpose, as the ballot page frames it, is showcasing the reader's voice in sharing the best of what the area has to offer, with attention to area businesses and attractions heading into the busy summer months. The ballot sits at valleysentinelnews.com/best-of/, on the publisher's own web address, so the newspaper controls the questions, the rounds and the result announcements directly rather than renting a third-party polling service. Each cycle alternates between a nomination stage, in which readers submit their picks, and a voting stage, in which the same readers settle every question.

The essentials

Item	Detail
Organizer	Valley Sentinel, Spring Green area newspaper
Market	Spring Green, Wisconsin
Ballot address	https://valleysentinelnews.com/best-of/
Format	reader nominations, then a public vote
Platform	the newspaper's own website
Focus	area businesses and attractions
Cadence	annual

When does the Best of the River Valley poll run?

The poll has run in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, giving the Spring Green area a recurring summer tradition. The 2025 cycle is the edition the ballot page spells out: nominations opened May 16 and closed May 29, the stretch reserved for readers to share all their best choices for the area, and after an update the voting round opened June 15 and ran through June 22. The organizer's own summary puts that edition's scale in concrete terms: "In 2025, we increased our categories up to 255 different options, which resulted in 765 awards." Once voting ended, the results went on stands, putting the winners in front of the whole community in print. The page also carries a countdown clock to the poll close, a reminder of how sharply bounded the voting stretch is. What the newspaper has not posted yet is the shape of the 2026 cycle, neither its nomination dates nor its voting dates; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Stage	Window	Status shown for 2025
Nominations	May 16 to May 29	Closed
Voting	June 15 to June 22	Open, marked updated
Results	After the poll closes	On stands

How does voting work on the River Valley ballot?

Participation alternates between a nomination stage and a voting stage. During nominations, a reader submits the people, places and businesses worth celebrating; when voting opens, that same supporter returns to the ballot and votes on the nominations across every poll question. The organizer caps participation in the clearest possible language: the page states, in bold capitals, that supporters may only vote once, and it pairs the rule with a pledge that fraudulent votes will be identified and eliminated. Nothing in the published instructions asks readers to pay, and none of them mention creating an account or signing in, so the practical hurdles are timing and awareness rather than money or registration. Because the 2025 voting stretch ran only from June 15 through June 22, preparation matters: a supporter who waits until the last hours may find favorite questions already settled, while businesses that briefed their customers beforehand collected votes steadily across the whole window.

How does the River Valley poll compare with other Wisconsin reader votes?

Wisconsin readers can choose among several ballots of this kind. Best of the Valley runs in Appleton, Best of Madison serves the capital, Best of Milwaukee Readers' Choice covers Milwaukee, the Eau Claire Reader's Choice Awards speak for that city, Best of the Bay does the same for Green Bay, and Janesville CommunityVotes rounds out the set. Against those programs, the River Valley poll stands apart in scale and setting: Spring Green is a small-market community rather than a metro, and Valley Sentinel designed its poll precisely to hand that community the sort of voice bigger cities already had. Best of Madison and its siblings each carry their own organizer, window and category structure, so a result in one says little about another. For a local business, the tighter geographic field here can make a devoted following travel further, though the single-vote rule keeps every campaign dependent on genuine breadth of support. For readers new to the format, any of these ballots works the same way at heart: nominate favorites, then vote, inside whatever window each publisher sets. There is also a structural difference worth weighing before choosing where to focus outreach. Every part of this ballot, from writing the questions to printing the winners, stays under one publisher's control, and both stages happen at the same web address, so a supporter who learns the ballot once knows it for every future cycle. Each neighboring program instead sets its own stages and structure independently.

Wisconsin program	Market
Best of the Valley	Appleton
Best of Madison	Madison
Best of Milwaukee Readers' Choice	Milwaukee
Eau Claire Reader's Choice Awards	Eau Claire
Best of the Bay	Green Bay
Janesville CommunityVotes	Janesville

How can a supporter strengthen a favorite's standing in this poll?

Because each supporter may vote only once, helping a favorite in the River Valley poll is about reach, not repetition. Reminders work best while the voting round is actually open, so a business that lines up its email list, counter signage and social followers before the window begins converts goodwill into ballots far more reliably than one that starts promoting after the close. The organizer's pledge that fraudulent votes will be identified and eliminated is another reason to keep outreach personal and genuine; a real customer casting a real vote beats any shortcut. The nomination round deserves equal attention, since it is when readers first put names onto the ballot, and goodwill built before that stage shapes which choices even appear for the June vote. For tactics that respect the rules of public ballots, the guide at getting more votes online covers outreach fundamentals, and the market overview at buying votes online explains how purchased support fits into contests of this kind.