Like any election, we encourage the candidates (business owners, artists and all you other wonderful people) to lobby their fans for votes, but only one vote per person is allowed. (We have ways to thwart cheaters, and improper votes will be disqualified, trust.) If you add insightful reasons or clever comments or contribute to the forum section at the end of the survey, we may (anonymously) quote you.
Keep your choices local—that is, stick to shops and services that are owned and operated here in Halifax. If it's a chain you're voting for, be sure to specify the location so we know who exactly you're talking about. For example, Wasabi House has location on Quinpool and in Sackville and Adept Tattoos has locations in both Halifax and Bedford.
- Is it true you're getting rid of the Best of Food and Best of Music surveys in the Best of Halifax?
- I have a question about the Best of Halifax, how do I send it?
- How does the Nomination Ballot work?
- How do you choose the 7 nominees for the Final Ballot?
- How do you choose new categories?
- Why do categories get dropped?
- How do you monitor cheating and ballot stuffing?
- How do you choose the Hall of Fame?
- Why do you always encourage voters to choose local?
- How you keep track of voting numbers and ballot-stuffing?
Is it true you're getting rid of the Best of Food and Best of Music surveys in the Best of Halifax?
For the 2015 Best of Halifax Readers' Choice Awards, we made the food, music, city and shopping awards all part of one awesome survey, instead of split up into three chunks throughout the year. Our announcement about the change is here. It was so successful, 2016 and beyond will be this way.
I have a question about the Best of Halifax, how do I send it?
Get an email going to the right place with a single click.
How does the Nominations Ballot work??
In 2017 we decided it was time to split our voting period in two and introduce a Nomination Ballot. Basically, this ballot works exactly the same as the Best of Halifax Readers' Choice Awards that you're used to—it's a fill-in-the-blank survey. For the six week nominations period you can put forth the names of anyone/any place for our 200+ categories to be nominated for the Final Ballot. Then, after a two week tabulation, we'll release the Final Ballot, which will include seven nominees in each category and you can vote AGAIN, this time picking your favourite from a multiple choice list.
How do you choose the 7 nominees for the Final Ballot?
The Final Ballot includes the six names with the highest number of votes from the Nomination Ballot, plus the Gold Winner from the previous year's survey (when applicable).
How do you choose new categories?
Every year before The Best of Halifax polls open, the editorial staff meet to look at the categories and consider the requests we’ve received through the year for new categories. When choosing new categories we look for a critical mass of likely candidates. (Can you think of more than one local astrologer, for example? Not yet for that category, then.) We also try new categories just for fun. (We’re really digging Best Hair on a Local Personality! Bruce Frisko, you rock.)
Why do categories get dropped?
If there are categories that get consistently low voting numbers, we consider dropping them. And if the world has changed, we try to change with it (rest in peace Best Rave-wear Store). We just like to shake it up, y’know?
How do you monitor cheating and ballot stuffing?
This is tricky, but we're committed to keeping our results as honest as possible. The platform we use for voting does require an email address to log in, but that doesn't necessarily stop ballot stuffing so we do keep an eye on IP addresses and votes coming from third-party voting sites. We also encourage voters to vote in at least 10 categories in order to be eligible, so that helps weed out bots and ballot stuffers. We support campaigning, but not the exchange freebies or deals in exchange for votes or the use of international third party voting sites. Any votes cast using such sites will not be counted in the final tally.
How do you choose the Hall of Fame?
In the past we retired winners that dominated a category for years, not only as a winner, but by a regularly insurmountable voting margin. But we wouldn't just retire the business or person, but the category itself—kind of like retired a hockey jersey number, no one else was able to ever win, say, Best Falafel again. In 2016, we changed the way the Hall of Fame had been working so that we could keep active categories alive and still allow dominant winners the glory of Hall of Fame status. Going forward, we will retire winners who've owned the category for 10 consecutive years (see Best Donair dominator, King of Donair or Best Pizza Pie kingpin, Salvatore's).
When someone or something is elevated to the BoH HoF every year we print the Hall of Fame winners from previous years, to remind folks who's boss.
Why do you always encourage voters to choose local?
We believe in supporting the local business and creative community. This is why there are no novels by JK Rowling in the poll results and why Julia Roberts doesn’t feature anywhere, although they received plenty of votes. We allow a caveat for those who feel strongly that a chain is really the best: If you voted for a national or international chain, you would have to be specific about the location for it to count. Help us out here, Future Shop fans: Did you mean the one in Bayers Lake or Dartmouth Crossing? If you can’t tell the difference, maybe choose local next time.
How you keep track of voting numbers and ballot-stuffing?
Our online polling software stores all the results and voter information in a database that you can think of as a massive spreadsheet. Computer magic makes it easy to "normalize" the individual votes (so entries for "The Grand Parade," "grandparade" and "that square in front of City Hall" all count towards Grand Parade's total), and to count them. The software also recognizes irregularities, such as an unusual number of votes coming from a single IP address or one voter writing the same business in every category. It’s a form of cheating called ballot-stuffing, and we know.