Menomonee Falls Downtown Businesses Scarecrow Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Menomonee Falls scarecrow contest is and who runs it

The Menomonee Falls Downtown Businesses Scarecrow Contest is a community event in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, organized by the town's downtown businesses. Its page is an event listing on the Menomonee Falls, WI Patch calendar, titled "Menomonee Falls Downtown Businesses Scarecrow Contest" and dated September 21. The listing's opening line reads "We are excited to bring back the Menomonee Falls Downtown Business Scarecrow Contest," and it adds that participating downtown businesses take part.

The platform is therefore a local news site's event calendar, not a dedicated voting service. The listing carries the dates, the winner announcement and a note about voting, and nothing else in the visible text sets out entry fees, judging criteria or a list of categories. The page's masthead shows a Patch Media copyright line for 2026, so the listing belongs to the current year.

A scarecrow contest between neighbouring shops is a different kind of ballot from a magazine's readers' poll. The participants are shopfronts, the public is the town itself, and the prize is local standing during a seasonal festival. Because the downtown businesses organize it themselves, the same shops that compete are also the ones who publish the rules, which is why their own listing outranks any outside description.

The dates, the 2026 contest and the October 3rd result

The listing gives the contest a short run, "September 21-Oct 2," and a clear finish line: "Winner will be announced on October 3rd at Falls Harvest Fest." The announcement therefore falls the day after the listed window ends, in front of festival crowds rather than on a web page alone. Only a 2026 contest is confirmed in the visible text.

The wording "bring back" suggests an earlier version of the contest, but the listing dates no earlier year, so nothing about previous winners or past vote counts appears here. It also announces no later year, and the listing prints no vote totals; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. What it does establish is the shape of the 2026 event: a display period from September 21 to Oct 2, an online public vote and a festival announcement. The festival detail is the most useful anchor for planning, because a business that wants to be at its own display for the result knows exactly which day and which event to attend.

The short version for a reader is this. Look at the scarecrows during the window, vote before it closes and watch the festival for the result. Anyone who wants more detail than that has to rely on the downtown businesses' own announcements.

How a resident votes online with the QR code

The vote is the public's role in the contest. The listing says a QR code lets the public vote online, so the mechanic is a scan, a visit to an online form and a choice among the participating scarecrows. The visible text does not say where the code is posted, whether it appears on each display or only on the listing, or what a voter has to enter.

A resident who wants to take part should plan around the listed dates. September 21-Oct 2 is the working window, and and the winner is announced on October 3rd, the day after the listed window closes. The listing does not publish a cutoff hour, so voting early removes the risk of missing the close.

The listing prints no cap on repeat votes and no account rule. Because those terms are unknown, a voter should assume the simplest case, a single considered choice, and let the businesses' own announcements correct that assumption if they publish stricter or looser terms. A voter who scans the code at a display and again at home should expect the form, not this page, to show whether a second try is accepted.

How this event sits beside Wisconsin's other public ballots

Wisconsin's other public votes on this site are mostly readers' polls run by publications. Best of the Valley, Appleton, Best of Madison, Best of Milwaukee Readers' Choice, Eau Claire Reader's Choice Awards, Best of the Bay, Green Bay and Janesville CommunityVotes all ask readers to name favorites across many business categories.

The Menomonee Falls event differs in three ways. Its organizers are downtown businesses themselves, not a newspaper. Its subject is a seasonal display, scarecrows set out by shops, and not a list of best restaurants or best dentists. And its vote is tied to a festival date, October 3rd at Falls Harvest Fest, so the result arrives in person.

Supporters comparing these ballots should note how the scale changes tactics. A regional poll rewards category-by-category campaigns across weeks, while a short downtown contest rewards local foot traffic and a visible QR code.

Strengthening support for a downtown display

Support for a scarecrow comes from the people who walk past it, and the listing is the authority on what counts. The downtown businesses publish no statement about outside voting help in the visible text, so a participating shop should stay with the stated mechanic, the public QR vote.

A business can put the code in its window, mention it at the till and ask regular customers to vote during September 21-Oct 2. General outreach methods for short public ballots are covered in the guide to getting more votes online, and the paid option for ballots that allow it is described on the buy contest votes page. The Patch listing and its dates remain the terms of the event.