How to Win Best of Portland: Nominations, Finals and Voting
Best of Portland voting is won in two rounds: enough nominations under one exact name to reach Willamette Week's five finalists, then the same readers picking you again. The paper's FAQ dates nominations March 23 to April 20 and the final round May 20 through June 17, across more than 200 categories. Willamette Week tells nominees to promote themselves. Read the rules page for how often a reader may pick and whether rewards are barred; nobody can promise a title.
By Victor Brown · Last updated
How the Best of Portland Readers' Poll moves from nominations to a winner
Willamette Week runs the Best of Portland Readers' Poll on its own website, and readers carry both rounds. Nominations fill each category, the five businesses named most often become finalists, and readers then choose which of those five deserves the title. A business never reaches the second round without the first.
Two separate asks, a month apart, to the same people: that is the real shape of the job. The first ask is the harder one. During nominations there is no finalist list to jog anyone's memory, so a customer has to think of you unprompted, name you correctly and put you in the right category. In the final round your name is already printed among five.
Scale is the other thing to absorb. With more than 200 categories spread over seven groups, your business competes inside one narrow line against a few real rivals, not against the whole city. That is good news for a neighborhood shop and bad news for anyone hoping a big following in one category spills over into another. It doesn't.
Two four-week rounds: when Portland nominations and voting open and close
Willamette Week's FAQ dates the nomination phase March 23 to April 20 and the voting phase May 20 through June 17, so each round lasts about four weeks with a month between them. According to our tracking, the Best of Portland Readers' Poll shows up in 9 years between 2018 and 2026.
According to our contest database, Willamette Week has 11 curated rows in Oregon. According to the same tracking, among the organizer's 5 rows with a recorded month, June is the usual opening month in 3 and the usual closing month in 2. The closing month fits the printed June 17 end. The opening month does not line up neatly with May 20, so I'd plan from the dates the paper prints for the edition you are in and treat our tracking as the yearly rhythm, nothing more.
Portland's rounds run long by Oregon standards. According to our tracking of 242 dated Oregon records from 2016 to 2026, the median voting or nomination promotion in the state stays open 22 days. According to the same database, March is the most common month for Oregon's recurring programs both to open (15% of 89) and to close (19% of 89). Willamette Week's nomination round also starts in March but keeps going into April, which leaves room for a steady ask instead of one blast in the first week.
Willamette Week is not the only Portland organizer, either. According to our tracking, 10 recurring public-vote programs sit under the Portland metro, every one hosted on its organizer's own website, so check the publisher's name on any form a customer forwards to you.
Best of Portland nominations: getting into a category's top five
Best of Portland nominations decide the finalist list: Willamette Week narrows each category to the five nominees who received the most nominations. A business outside that top five has no slot in the May round, however loyal its customers are, so the nomination weeks deserve as much effort as the final.
Three decisions make or break the count. First, the exact name: pick the version on your sign, print it everywhere and say it out loud at the register, because nominations scattered across a nickname, the owner's name and the name before last year's rebrand are a weaker showing than one name repeated. Second, the category. With seven groups to browse, a customer who means well can file a taqueria under the wrong line, so give the category in the same breath as the name. Third, timing. An ask in the last days of April competes with every other business doing the same thing, while one in late March has the inbox mostly to itself.
Chasing many categories is the common mistake. Nominations spread across six lines can leave you sixth in all of them, and sixth means nothing in a poll that keeps five. I'd pick the one or two categories where regulars already describe you that way and leave the rest alone.
Willamette Week asks nominees to promote; each year's rules set the limits
Willamette Week's own FAQ tells Best of Portland nominees to promote themselves: send e-blasts, post on social media, advertise, and get everyone they know to nominate them. The paper's voting page repeats that advice for the final round starting May 20 and sells Share of Voice ad units, up to three per category.
Few organizers say it so bluntly. The FAQ's tone is closer to a coach than a referee, and that matters for a nervous owner: asking customers for support is expected in Portland, not frowned on. Asking is the permission. The limits are a separate matter, and the promotion advice leaves them unsaid.
Those limits live in the official rules of each edition, not in the FAQ's pep talk. Before the first e-blast goes out, find the answers below, save a dated copy of the rules page, and put anything unclear to the paper in writing so the reply sits in your inbox if a question comes up later:
- How often one reader may pick in a category, and whether that allowance resets daily or holds for the whole round
- Whether a pick needs an email address, a confirmation click or a sign-in before it counts
- Whether offering a discount, a drink or a gift in return for a nomination or a pick costs a business its place
- What the paper does with entries it believes came from automated tools or made-up email addresses
- Who settles a dispute about the count, and whether that decision is final
Best of Portland awards are won by regulars who come back twice
Best of Portland awards go to businesses whose customers show up in both rounds, once in the March-to-April nomination phase and again between May 20 and June 17, and Willamette Week's own advice for 2026 was to get families, customers and community picking you, which puts your existing customer list at the center of the plan.
The tools are ordinary, and they work because they reach people who already like you. A card at the register with the exact name and category. A line in the receipt email. An e-blast to your list in the first week of each round and another in the last. A post on your own accounts that links straight to the form rather than to your homepage. Staff who can answer "which category?" without looking it up.
Example scenario (illustrative - not a client result): a neighborhood restaurant decides in early March to go for a single category. It prints the exact name and category on table cards before nominations open, sends its list one nomination ask at the start and one near the April close, checks the finalist list when the final round begins, and then asks the same people again through June. It attaches no reward to any ask, which keeps it on safe ground whatever the edition's rules say about incentives.
Reach for its own sake does little. Followers in another state are not the paper's readers, and a sudden spike of picks from people with no tie to your business is the kind of pattern an organizer can see in its own count.
Paid promotion beside Willamette Week's poll ads: what Voting Now runs
Voting Now does not sell votes for the Best of Portland Readers' Poll. We sell promotion for the poll: paid ads, native PR, posts in partner groups and with bloggers, and our own social channels, all aimed at real people in Portland who might know your business. Willamette Week's Share of Voice ad units are a separate product the paper sells itself.
Promotion fits Portland better than most cities because the paper invites it. The honest limits are short. We cannot put you in a category's top five, we cannot touch the count, and no one can promise a Best of Portland title, since readers choose it. We price poll promotion the way advertisers price leads, with a quote agreed before anything runs.
Outside promotion is the wrong call while your regulars have not been asked. A business that has not sent a single e-blast to its own list should do that first; it reaches the people most likely to pick you and costs nothing but an afternoon. Add promotion when the free asks are done, the edition's rules allow it, and the category is one you can credibly win. Send us the poll link for a free analysis.
| Stage | Rule to check first | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Before nominations open | The edition's official dates, and any change from the FAQ's March 23 start | Save dated copies of the FAQ and rules, then settle one business name and category |
| Nomination phase | How many nominations one person may submit, and through which form | Ask regulars by name and category early in the window and again before April 20 |
| Finalist cut | Five finalists per category, chosen by the most nominations received | Check the list when the final round opens and drop categories where you missed |
| Voting phase, May 20 to June 17 | How often one reader may pick, and whether an email confirmation applies | Ask the same people again, paced to the allowance the rules state |
| Share of Voice ads | Up to three ad units per category on the voting pages | Treat an ad as visibility while readers choose, not as picks in the count |
| Rewards for supporters | Whether a discount or gift given in return for a pick is barred | Attach nothing to the ask unless the rules plainly allow it |
| When to skip outside promotion | Any clause in the poll's rules forbidding paid promotion or outside help | Win with your own customers, or leave that category alone |
Step by step
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Screenshot Willamette Week's FAQ
Save the paper's Best of Portland FAQ and the edition's official rules with the date visible. The round dates, the five-finalist cut and any limit on picks shape every step that follows.
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Put your name on the counter
Print the exact business name and category on a counter card, in the receipt email and on your own posts, so nominations from different customers land on one listing instead of three.
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Ask at both ends of spring
Send the first nomination ask when the phase opens in late March and a second in its final week before April 20, so people who missed the first message still have time.
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Confirm the five names in May
When the final round opens, find your category and confirm your business is among its five finalists under the name you promoted. If it is not, stop spending effort on that category.
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Return to the same people
Ask everyone who nominated you to pick you between May 20 and June 17, at the pace the rules allow, with a last reminder a few days before the June close.
Questions and answers
What wins local business awards for a Portland shop?
Local business awards in Willamette Week's poll are won by customers who take part twice, nominating in spring and picking again in the final round. The paper keeps five finalists per category, so a shop that is not named often enough in March and April has nothing to defend in June. Repeat customers, one exact name and one category do most of the work.
Which Portland habits still apply if you want to get Best of Omaha?
Habits from Portland's poll transfer to Omaha, but Willamette Week's dates and five-finalist cut do not. One exact name, one or two categories and asks aimed at real customers work in any reader poll. Omaha's organizer sets its own rounds and limits, so read that poll's rules before you reuse a single date or step from Portland.
How is trying to win Best of Boston different from Portland?
Best of Boston comes from a different publisher with its own rounds and rules, so Willamette Week's calendar, finalist count and promotion advice do not carry over. Read the Boston program's own rules page before you plan anything. The Portland habits still hold: one name, a narrow category choice and customers who already know you.
Does a Portland nomination plan work to get nominated for Best of Las Vegas?
Yes. A plan built on one exact name, one category and real customers works for getting nominated for Best of Las Vegas too. That contest's organizer sets its own nomination window and threshold, though, so check its rules before you borrow Portland's March-to-April timing.
When did Best of Portland 2026 voting open?
Best of Portland 2026 voting opened May 20, according to Willamette Week's voting page, and the paper's FAQ dates the voting phase May 20 through June 17. Nominations come first: the FAQ puts that phase from March 23 to April 20, and only the five most-nominated businesses in each category reach the final round.
Is a Portland Old Port Best of 2026 title the same contest?
No. The Old Port is a district of Portland, Maine, while Willamette Week's Best of Portland Readers' Poll covers Portland, Oregon. Titles from different publishers are separate contests with separate rules, so check the publisher's name on any form before you send customers to it.
Can a business advertise on the Best of Portland voting pages?
Yes. Willamette Week sells Share of Voice ad units on the voting pages, with up to three ads available per category. An ad puts your name in front of readers while they choose. Readers still decide, and the ad buys no picks in the poll.
Sources
- mediakit.wweek.com. mediakit.wweek.com/best-of-portland-faq.
- mediakit.wweek.com. mediakit.wweek.com/best-of-portland-faq.
- mediakit.wweek.com. mediakit.wweek.com/bop-voting.
- mediakit.wweek.com. mediakit.wweek.com/best-of-portland-faq.
- mediakit.wweek.com. mediakit.wweek.com/best-of-portland-faq.
Readers decide the Best of Portland title, so no one, us included, can promise it. Voting Now cannot place a business among a category's five finalists, see inside Willamette Week's count or change it. We will not sell picks in the Readers' Poll, create email addresses for anyone, or attach a reward to a customer's nomination. Political or governmental votes sit outside our work entirely, and an Oregon poll whose rules bar paid promotion gets a polite no from us.
A contest vote sits under two rulebooks, the platform's and the organizer's. Meta's Spam standard lists offering anything of monetary value in exchange for engagement as a covered behavior, and the Santa Barbara Independent says it will disqualify a business that offers voters incentives of any kind. Voting Now reads both rulebooks before it plans anything, and a clause that forbids outside promotion ends the job.
Contest platforms check votes as routine. Easypromos runs each vote through 11 security controls and does not count one that fails any of them, and Woobox says voting fraud is becoming more common as contests grow popular. Voting Now promotes to real people who choose for themselves, at the contest's own pace, and none of this is a method for getting past a check.
Under 16 CFR 465.8, buying fake indicators of social media influence for a commercial purpose can violate the FTC's rule, which is one reason Voting Now promotes to real people and does not bring in bought counts. The FTC's Endorsement Guides also require a paid creator to disclose the connection clearly. Whether outside promotion is lawful for a given contest is a question for a lawyer, and Voting Now takes no political or governmental votes.
No quote promises a win, a ranking or a vote count, because the organizer counts the votes and applies its own rules. The Santa Barbara Independent, for one, says it will disqualify a business that offers voters incentives of any kind. Nothing runs before the client approves a written quote.