Kansas Online Voting Contests

Catchy Awards Kansas High School Athletics

The annual Catch It Kansas fan vote from KWCH 12 (Scripps) honoring Kansas high school sports across roughly 30 categories statewide — Best Player, Best Team, Best Moment, and Best Coach across KSHSAA classifications. About 3,000 fans cast ballots each edition at catchitkansas.com, with winners revealed at a June broadcast ceremony.

DiRenna Awards Kansas City Basketball Player of the Year

Kansas City metro (Kansas side) · KSHB 41 (Scripps) / Kansas City area media

The DiRenna Awards name the Kansas City metro's boys' and girls' basketball Player of the Year through public fan voting, run by KSHB 41 (Scripps) and covering both the Kansas and Missouri sides of the metro. The award has run annually since 1954, making it one of the longest-running high school basketball honors in the region, and unlike the statewide Kansas Athlete of the Week poll, it recognizes basketball only.

ESPN Wichita High School Athlete of the Week

Wichita · ESPN Wichita 92.3 (espnwichita.com)

Weekly fan-vote recognition from ESPN Wichita 92.3, honoring one standout high school performance from schools across the Wichita radio market each week. The ballot posts directly at espnwichita.com/athleteoftheweek — the station's own page, not the SBLive or Sports Illustrated network several other Kansas polls use. No account required to vote.

Greater Wichita Sports Banquet Athlete of the Year

Greater Wichita metro, Kansas · Wichita Sports Commission

The Wichita Sports Commission selects winners of its annual Greater Wichita Sports Banquet awards through a media panel, not a public fan vote. Eight categories span high school, college, and professional athletes and coaches. Finalists become public knowledge ahead of the June ceremony, driving nomination interest rather than vote totals.

Kansas High School Athlete of the Week

Statewide Kansas · KSHB 41 / Hy-Vee (Scripps Media NBC affiliate)

Free weekly Kansas prep sports award presented by Hy-Vee and KSHB 41 (Scripps Media NBC affiliate, Kansas City). KSHB sports staff selects nominees from KSHSAA-member schools across all six classifications; fans vote free online at kshb.com with no account required. Runs year-round through every KSHSAA season.

Topeka Capital-Journal Athlete of the Week

Topeka · Topeka Capital-Journal (Gannett)

Weekly free fan vote run by the Topeka Capital-Journal (Gannett/USA Today Network) covering Topeka-area KSHSAA schools across every sport and season. Nominations go to [email protected]; the ballot runs on cjonline.com and closes Thursday at noon. No account or sign-up is needed to cast a vote.

Topeka Capital-Journal High School Athlete of the Week

Topeka · Topeka Capital-Journal / Gannett

The Topeka Capital-Journal's weekly multi-sport fan vote covering the Topeka metro area — any KSHSAA sport, any season, closes midday Thursday or Friday depending on the week. Coaches and parents submit to reporter Liam Keating; readers vote free via an embedded Gannett poll widget at cjonline.com.

WIBW Scholar Athlete of the Week

Topeka & northeast Kansas (WIBW viewing area) · WIBW-TV (Topeka CBS affiliate, Gray Television)

Annual recognition series from WIBW-TV, Topeka's CBS affiliate, sponsored by Kaw Valley Bank and Cable Dahmer. WIBW's sports desk names one northeast Kansas student each week for combined academic and athletic achievement. Selection is editorial, not a public fan-vote ballot: there is no cap, tally, or leaderboard published for this program.

Wichita ESPYs Athlete of the Year

Wichita metro, Kansas · ESPN Wichita 92.3 / 810 WHB-AM

ESPN Wichita 92.3 and 810 WHB-AM run the annual Honorary ESPYs fan vote each June, covering roughly eight to ten categories — high school, small college, and professional athletes across the Wichita metro. The public votes at 810whb.com; no purchase or account is required to cast a ballot.

Best of Johnson County

The Johnson County Post's open readers-choice ballot, spanning 200+ categories with a $500 voter incentive drawing, covering Overland Park, Olathe, Shawnee, and Lenexa on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro.

Best of KC (Kansas City Magazine)

Kansas City Magazine's annual Best of KC readers-choice program, with nominations typically opening around January and a public community vote running near March, including a category set specific to Johnson County, Kansas alongside the magazine's broader metro-wide ballot.

Best of Lawrence

The Lawrence Journal-World / Sunflower Publishing readers-choice awards, a nominate-then-vote ballot that drew 89,000+ nominations and 369,000+ votes in 2025, with winners printed in a standalone Best of Lawrence magazine.

Best of Wichita

The Wichita Eagle's annual readers-choice awards, a nominate-then-vote ballot spanning 248 categories, with 634,000+ votes cast in the 2025 edition and winners printed in a dedicated Eagle special section.

CommunityVotes Lawrence

Lawrence, Kansas has its own readers' choice business ballot through the CommunityVotes network, running at lawrenceks.communityvotes.com, where the 2026 nomination window opened June 2 and closes September 27. Beyond that window, the site doesn't spell out a category list, nor does it name a vote cap; the live page is where to look up either one.

CommunityVotes Olathe

Olathe · CommunityVotes Olathe

Olathe, Kansas runs its own city-specific edition of the national CommunityVotes readers-choice platform at olathe.communityvotes.com, separate from Overland Park's and Topeka's editions elsewhere in the state. A June 2-September 27 nomination window for 2026 is printed directly on the page and backed by an open market-listing status. Nothing about the category slate, a vote cap, or a voting-close date appears past that window.

CommunityVotes Overland Park

CommunityVotes Overland Park's own business readers-choice ballot at overlandpark.communityvotes.com, run separately from the Kansas City-wide CommunityVotes program and from Best of Johnson County and Best of KC, the two other ballots already covering the same suburb. No confirmed category list or vote cap is published for Overland Park specifically.

CommunityVotes Shawnee

Shawnee, Kansas sits inside Johnson County in the Kansas City metro, and the CommunityVotes network runs the city's own readers' choice business ballot, CommunityVotes Shawnee, at shawnee.communityvotes.com. Nominations for the 2026 cycle opened June 2 and stay open through September 27. Which categories apply and how many votes a supporter gets go unstated past that date; confirm both on the live site.

CommunityVotes Topeka

CommunityVotes Topeka is a separate readers-choice business ballot at topeka.communityvotes.com, run by the CommunityVotes network rather than the Topeka Capital-Journal's Gannett-run Community's Choice Awards. Same city, different organizer, different platform, and a nomination step that has nothing to do with the Capital-Journal's five-tier results.

Emporia Gazette Readers' Choice Awards

Annual Emporia Gazette Readers' Choice Awards for businesses across Lyon, Chase, Morris, Greenwood, Osage, and Coffey counties, with public voting at bestofemporia.com and results printed in the Gazette each summer.

Kansas City Engaged Couples' Choice Awards

The Kansas City Engaged Couples' Choice Awards is a public-vote wedding vendor recognition program run by Kansas City Engaged, a Kansas-based wedding resource platform. Confirmed editions span 2025 and 2026. Nominations and voting open each October, with winners announced in November. The ballot is hosted on the organizer's own site at kcengagedshow.com.

Lawrence Journal-World Holiday Recipe Contest

Lawrence · Lawrence Journal-World

Lawrence Journal-World, the Lawrence, Kansas newspaper, runs the Holiday Recipe Contest at extra.ljworld.com on the Second Street platform. Four separate editions are confirmed, 2023 through 2026, with the 2026 ballot open October 30 through November 20. Whether recipes get sorted into categories, or how often one supporter may vote, is nowhere in the current listing; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Manhattan Mercury Classroom Champions

Unlike the citywide business polls covering Overland Park, Topeka, or Wichita, the Manhattan Mercury's Classroom Champions ballot asks Kansas readers to recognize schools and educators rather than storefronts. Run on Second Street at themercury.secondstreetapp.com, the program's most recently confirmed nomination-and-voting window ran April 28 through December 2, 2025, its second confirmed edition after an initial 2024 run. Manhattan Mercury has not published a category list or a per-voter cap for Classroom Champions; both are matters to confirm on the live ballot each cycle rather than assume from an earlier season.

Manhattan Mercury Readers' Choice

The Manhattan Mercury's annual Readers' Choice awards for Manhattan, Kansas, voted at themercury.com/readerschoice/. The confirmed record covers the organizer, the official URL, and the annual cadence; the category list, nomination dates, and any vote cap aren't published in what's confirmed here, so the live page is the source each cycle.

Salina Area Defensive Player of the Year Presented by Salina Tech

Where do Salina supporters vote in the Salina Area Defensive Player of the Year? At poll.fm/16400068, hosted by Crowdsignal. The program recognizes standout defensive football performers from Kansas high schools in the Salina region, with voting traditionally opening in December. Confirmed edition years include 2023 and 2025.

Salina Community's Choice Awards

Salina · Salina Journal

Salina Journal, part of Gannett, runs the Salina Community's Choice Awards on the Second Street ballot platform at salina.gannettcontests.com. Three rounds have run there so far: 2024, 2025 and 2026. The 2026 voting ballot opened July 17 and closed August 1. Separate pages carry the nomination phase, the vote itself, and a winners list, the same three-page pattern repeating across all three confirmed years. Ballot categories and a per-voter limit: confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

The Gardner News Early Season Girls Basketball Player of the Year

The Gardner News Early Season presents an annual public-vote award honoring Kansas girls basketball standouts, with balloting hosted on Crowdsignal (poll.fm). Nominations for this early-season honor run September through November; confirmed editions ran in 2023 and 2025. Categories and any vote cap go unpublished; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Topeka Community's Choice Awards

Two separate Topeka readers-choice programs share a "Community's Choice" name each year: the Topeka Capital-Journal's Gannett-run ballot, which sorts winners into five tiers from Platinum to Top Pick, and the unrelated CommunityVotes Topeka business ballot, run by a different organizer with its own site and its own schedule.

Wichita Area Builders Parade of Homes

Wichita Area Builders Association's Parade of Homes is a builder-run home tour showcasing 100+ newly built homes per event across the Wichita area. WABA introduced a public People's Choice fan vote in Fall 2024, run through the votewichitaks.com and bestofwichitaks.com ecosystem alongside the association's own wabahome.com site.

Wichita Area Small School Defensive Player of the Year Presented by WSU Tech

Wichita Area runs the Wichita Area Small School Defensive Player of the Year Presented by WSU Tech, a Kansas high school football defensive honor decided by public vote on Crowdsignal. The ballot covers small schools in the Wichita area. Confirmed edition years are 2023 and 2025. Voting opens in December; exact dates confirm on the live ballot each cycle.