Illinois Online Voting Contests

Daily Chronicle DeKalb County Athlete of the Week

DeKalb · Dekalb Daily Chronicle

Unlike several other Illinois newspapers running their own separate athlete-of-the-week ballots, the Daily Chronicle runs DeKalb County Athlete of the Week at dekalbdailychronicle.secondstreetapp.com, now in its third confirmed season, 2024-25 through 2026-27. The live vote is Week 3, open September 13 through September 15, 2026, and the page states voting ends Tuesday at noon. A category list and any per-voter limit stay unpublished; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Herald & Review Illinois Player of the Week

Decatur · Herald & Review

The Herald & Review's weekly fan-vote poll covering high school sports across central Illinois — Decatur, Bloomington-Normal, Mattoon, Charleston, and the smaller programs between them. It closes Monday at 10 a.m. CT, earlier than most weekly polls, and results post Monday afternoon.

Herald-News Joliet Athlete of the Week

The Herald-News (Shaw Local, Joliet/Will County) runs a weekly multi-sport fan-vote poll for area high schools: readers nominate, then vote, unlimited times per person, until the poll closes at noon on Sunday.

Illinois High School Athlete of the Week

Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)

Statewide Illinois fan-vote award at si.com, published weekly by High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive) across all three IHSA sports seasons. No vote cap; polls close Sunday at 11:59 p.m. CT. Covers 800-plus IHSA member schools statewide.

Illinois High School Player of the Year

Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)

Annual statewide Illinois fan-vote award at si.com, run by High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive) at the end of each sport season. One sport-specific POY ballot per season; no per-vote cap for human voters; automated scripts disqualify a campaign's total. Covers all 800-plus IHSA member schools statewide.

Illinois SI Boys Basketball Player of the Year

Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)

Single combined statewide fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning one Illinois boys basketball standout each March at the close of the IHSA postseason. It is the only SI Illinois sport ballot that skips a per-classification split. No account is needed to cast a vote.

Illinois SI Football Class 1A Player of the Year

Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)

Per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a standalone Class 1A winner, the smallest-enrollment tier on the state's eight-class football ladder, with seven larger classes above it and none below. No account or sign-up step sits between a click and a vote.

Illinois SI Football Class 4A Player of the Year

Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)

Free per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a standalone Class 4A winner one rung below the eight-class ladder's exact middle, drawing largely from Illinois's downstate and smaller-suburban football programs. The ballot doesn't ask for a login before a click gets counted.

Illinois SI Football Class 5A Player of the Year

Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)

Per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a standalone Class 5A winner — the exact midpoint of the state's eight-way football Player of the Year ladder, with four smaller classes below it and three larger ones above. No account or sign-up step sits between a click and a vote.

Illinois SI Football Class 6A Player of the Year

Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)

Per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a standalone Class 6A winner in the state's eight-way football Player of the Year format — the tier that produced back-to-back title-game rematches between East St. Louis and Fenwick. No account or sign-up step sits between a click and a vote.

Illinois SI Football Class 7A Player of the Year

Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)

Per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a separate Class 7A winner, the tier sitting directly beneath Illinois's largest-enrollment class, inside the state's eight-way football Player of the Year format. No sign-up step stands between a click and a counted vote.

Illinois SI Football Class 8A Player of the Year

Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)

Per-classification fan vote run by High School on SI at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning a separate Class 8A winner rather than folding the state's largest-enrollment programs into one combined ballot — the same class-by-class format SI uses for football POY coverage in Iowa, Minnesota, and Michigan. Casting a vote needs no sign-up step.

Illinois SI Football Player of the Year

Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)

Annual single-sport fan vote run by High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive) at si.com/high-school/illinois, crowning one Illinois football standout after IHSA's Class 1A-8A championships conclude. The ballot opens in late November or December and closes by early January; no account is required to cast a vote.

Illinois SI Girls Basketball Player of the Year

Statewide Illinois · High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive)

Annual statewide fan vote run by High School on SI (Sports Illustrated / SBLive) at si.com/high-school/illinois, honoring one IHSA girls basketball standout once the postseason concludes. The ballot runs inside a dated article rather than a standalone form. No account is needed, and the exact per-device cap isn't published for this specific vote.

News-Gazette Athlete of the Week

Champaign · The News-Gazette

The News-Gazette weekly fan vote for standout Champaign-Urbana area high-school athletes — boys and girls polled separately each Monday, one vote per device, closing Thursday at noon. The per-device cap and midweek deadline make this the most time-compressed prep poll in Illinois.

Peoria Journal Star Boys & Girls Athlete of the Week

Peoria · Peoria Journal Star (pjstar.com)

The Peoria Journal Star's weekly fan-vote award for the best prep athlete in the Peoria metro and central Illinois. CEFCU sponsors the poll; it runs boys and girls ballots simultaneously; and it closes Friday at noon -- not Sunday, not Monday. That Friday cutoff is the first thing to get right.

Rockford Register Star Athlete of the Week

Rockford · Rockford Register Star

The Rockford Register Star's weekly fan-vote award covering high school athletes across the Rockford metro — multi-sport, year-round, capped at one vote per device per day, and decided Friday at noon. Nominations go to [email protected] by Monday morning.

WCIA Athlete of the Week (Champaign)

Three Central Illinois outlets run separate athlete polls in the same footprint: WCIA 3's weekly, every-sport ballot opens nominations each Wednesday, sits apart from a $1,500 annual scholarship award, and covers a defined multi-county broadcast area rather than the whole state.

BAGI Parade of Homes People's Choice

BAGI's Parade of Homes includes a confirmed People's Choice Award, where the touring public votes for a favorite entered home alongside whatever judged categories the event runs that cycle. Separate, parallel Parade of Homes-style programs operate through other Illinois Home Builders Association chapters in Chicago-area suburbs, run independently of BAGI's own program and rules.

Best of Chicago (Chicago Reader)

The Chicago Reader runs Best of Chicago itself, no syndication network, no chain ownership. Every category is decided by reader ballots, and the 2025 cycle stays open through December 31.

Best of Naperville

Naperville Magazine's reader poll across roughly 60 local categories, built on email-verified nominate-then-vote rounds and now in its 17th year.

Best of Springfield (Illinois Times)

Illinois Times' annual Best of Springfield readers poll spans more than 200 categories, and Best Donut pulled the highest voter engagement of the 2025 cycle. Results ran in the paper's October 30 issue, closed out with an in-person results party rather than a quiet online leaderboard.

Best of the Fox

Kane County, Illinois's Kane County Chronicle runs Best of the Fox at kanecounty.secondstreetapp.com through the Second Street platform. Six confirmed editions run 2020 and 2022 through 2026. The most recent voting stage ran February 19 through March 16, 2026. None of the six confirmed years has come with a published category roster or a stated ceiling on votes, leaving kanecounty.secondstreetapp.com as the only place either question gets answered once a new stage opens.

Best of the West

West Suburban Living Magazine's annual reader-vote ballot across 80-plus categories covering DuPage, Kane, Kendall, and Will County's western Chicago suburbs, now past its 17th year in print and online.

Chicago Style Weddings Best Of

Chicago Style Weddings' Best Of awards recognize wedding vendors, venues, photographers, and planners across the Chicago market through a nomination process blending reader input with the magazine's own industry judging. The program has run more than 30 years and publishes twice yearly. Exact voting weight and current dates sit at chicagostyleweddings.com.

CIProud High School Mascot Bracket

WMBD-TV's CIProud brand runs the CIProud High School Mascot Bracket for Central Illinois on a Second Street voting bracket at wmbd-tv.secondstreetapp.com. Two editions are confirmed, 2025 and 2026, and the 2026 bracket is confirmed open August 17 through October 16. Each round pits one school mascot against another, and past what the current bracket page shows, confirm on the live ballot each cycle for round count, matchup list, or a per-voter limit.

CommunityVotes Cicero

Cicero, Illinois, a suburb just west of Chicago, hosts CommunityVotes Cicero, a neighbor-nominated business ballot run through a local CommunityVotes partner at cicero.communityvotes.com. Two editions are confirmed so far, 2022 and 2026, with the current nomination period open July 15 through November 8. Past that window, the site alone decides what its category list and per-voter rules end up being; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

CommunityVotes Naperville

CommunityVotes Naperville is a community-choice business ballot for Naperville, Illinois, run at naperville.communityvotes.com, where 2026 nominations stay open from July 2 to October 25. Past that window, the site does not publish a specific category breakdown or a per-voter limit; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

CommunityVotes Peoria IL

CommunityVotes Peoria IL runs a public business voting program at peoriail.communityvotes.com. It operates independently of YourChoiceAwards, the separate company behind the Peoria Journal Star's Community's Choice ballot, and no published category list, vote cap, or fixed calendar accompanies the confirmed operator name and URL.

CommunityVotes Rockford

CommunityVotes Rockford runs a business voting program at rockford.communityvotes.com, with a FAQ page confirmed live for the 2025 cycle. No published category list, vote cap, or fixed calendar accompanies the confirmed organizer name and URL, so the live site itself is the only real authority on this year's rules.

CommunityVotes Springfield IL

CommunityVotes Springfield IL runs a public business voting program at springfieldil.communityvotes.com. It operates separately from YourChoiceAwards' Springfield Community's Choice and Illinois Times' Best of Springfield, two other named local ballots, and no published category list, vote cap, or fixed calendar accompanies the confirmed operator name and URL.

Daily Herald Readers' Choice

Daily Herald's Readers' Choice awards, voted at readerschoice.dailyherald.com and live for the 2026 cycle, cover the paper's suburban Chicago footprint across Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and McHenry counties. Category list, cap, and close date aren't published beyond the live site each cycle.

HBA Greater Chicago Parade of Homes People's Choice

HBA of Greater Chicago / North Shore runs its Parade of Homes each spring and fall, pairing new-construction entries with a People's Choice Award. The touring public votes for a favorite home each cycle, a suburban attendee vote rather than a name recalled from memory; the exact ballot mechanic isn't published this season.

Herald & Review Readers' Choice (Decatur)

Decatur Herald & Review's annual Readers' Choice awards for its central Illinois circulation area, promoted at herald-review.com. A 2025 ballot is confirmed to have run; the category list, nomination window, and vote cap are not fixed in the public record here, so treat the live herald-review.com page as the only current authority each cycle.

Kane County Magazine Finest

Kane County Chronicle runs Kane County Magazine Finest on a Second Street ballot at kanecounty.secondstreetapp.com, and the 2026 voting window is tight: confirmed open just August 29 through September 14. It is the program's second confirmed edition after 2025, though the Chronicle has not published that earlier edition's exact dates, so there is no way yet to compare how the window shifts year to year. A breakdown of entry categories and a limit on votes per supporter are also missing, so confirm on the live ballot each cycle before a Kane County business commits to a plan around either one.

Kane County's Coolest Car Photo Contest

Kane County Chronicle, a weekly paper based in St. Charles, hosts Kane County's Coolest Car Photo Contest on Second Street at kanecounty.secondstreetapp.com. Archived evidence puts the total at two editions, 2024 and 2025, and the latest entry window closed May 17 after opening April 22, 2025. Neither a category breakdown nor a per-voter limit has surfaced for this photo ballot; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

News-Gazette People's Choice (Champaign)

The Champaign News-Gazette's People's Choice readers-vote program, run at news-gazette.com/peoples_choice for the university-adjacent Champaign-Urbana market. No published category list, vote cap, or fixed calendar exists in the record checked for this guide; confirm current rules on the live page each cycle.

Peoria Journal Star Community's Choice

YourChoiceAwards runs the Peoria Journal Star's Community's Choice readers-choice program at peoriail.communityvotes.com, where the public votes for local businesses across the Peoria metro. Results are published in the Peoria Journal Star itself, and the specific category list, vote cap, and calendar are not documented anywhere else public.

Sauk Valley Favorites

Sauk Valley Media's annual reader vote across 100 categories for the Sterling, Rock Falls, and Dixon region — 67,000-plus votes and 1,400-plus businesses recognized in 2025, with winners announced at a live gala.

Springfield Community's Choice

YourChoiceAwards runs Springfield Community's Choice at yourchoiceawards.com/springfieldil/, the capital city's local readers-choice program. The 2025 cycle's winners are confirmed; category list, vote cap, and this cycle's close date should be read off the live ballot page rather than assumed from a prior year.

The Telegraph Riverbend and Madison County Best of the Best

Alton · The Telegraph

The Telegraph runs the Riverbend and Madison County Best of the Best for Alton, Illinois, a readers'-choice ballot hosted at telegraph.secondstreetapp.com. Five confirmed editions back the program, 2022 through 2026, and the current window is scheduled to open September 10 and run through October 29, 2026. That page names no category roster and sets no per-voter ceiling; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

WGN Radio Chicago Area's Best Burgers Tournament

WGN Radio's bracket-style burger tournament for the Chicago metro, run online with sponsor backing from Turano Baking and Puckered Pickle. Restaurants advance round by round on public votes rather than a single open-ended ballot, and the winner earns bragging rights across the station's food coverage.

WGN Radio Chicago Pizza Madness Tournament

WGN Radio's annual Chicago Pizza Madness bracket under its Chicago's Very Own Eats franchise, pitting 128 pizzerias across four regions in single-elimination online voting that drew more than 95,000 votes in 2025, roughly double the field size of many regional pizza brackets elsewhere in the country.

WSIL Viewers' Choice Awards

Unlike Illinois readers'-choice programs run through a shared "best of" network, WSIL Viewers' Choice Awards is organized directly by WSIL-TV, serving the Harrisburg-Marion-Carbondale television market in southern Illinois, on its own wsiltv.secondstreetapp.com listing. Two editions are confirmed, 2024 and 2025, the more recent closing September 15, 2025. A 2026 edition is not yet published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Illinois County Fair Queen People's Choice

Illinois runs its County Fair Queen People's Choice pageant straight from the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs' own site, illinoiscountyfairs.org, rather than through a shared voting network. The confirmed run stands at two editions, 2025 and the 2026 vote open Saturday, December 20, 2025 through Saturday, January 17, 2026. Every name on the ballot is a queen representing the county fair she comes from, so the page covers Illinois as a whole rather than one county alone. No category roster or per-voter limit is published past that window; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Animal House Shelter Calendar Contest

Huntley · Animal House Shelter Calendar Contest

The Animal House Shelter Calendar Contest is a Huntley, Illinois animal shelter's annual photo fundraiser, run through GoGo Photo Contest at gogophotocontest.com/animalhouseshelter. Entry and voting run together in one window, confirmed to close November 1, 2026, with the 13 highest-voted photos earning a spot in the shelter's 2027 calendar. A category list isn't published beyond that, and a vote cap isn't either; check the live contest page directly for both.

Herald-Whig Cutest Pet Calendar Contest

Quincy · The Herald-Whig (Quincy Media)

Quincy, Illinois' daily paper, The Herald-Whig, owned by Quincy Media, runs the Cutest Pet Calendar Contest on the Second Street platform at whig.secondstreetapp.com. One documented window ran October 11 through November 29, 2025, and the Herald-Whig treats the contest as an annual fixture even though only that single window is dated so far. Submitting a pet photo is the entire mechanic; the "2026" in the program's own name marks the calendar year the winning photos are meant to fill, not a second dated cycle. Neither the category list nor a voting ceiling is printed there; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Quad City Pet Photo Calendar Contest

The Quad City Pet Photo Calendar Contest is Quad City Animal Welfare Center's annual photo fundraiser, hosted on GoGo Photo Contest's gogophotocontest.com/qcawc2026calendar page. The page names the cycle behind the 2026 calendar its 3rd Annual edition. The last confirmed entry window ran August 29 through September 19, 2025, with voting following September 20 through October 12, 2025. This cycle's page does not spell out how categories break down or set any limit on votes per person; the live site is where to check both.