Nebraska Online Voting Contests

Family Fare Athlete of the Week (Omaha World-Herald)

Omaha · Omaha World-Herald (omaha.com), sponsored by Family Fare Supermarkets

The Omaha World-Herald's weekly high school fan-vote poll, sponsored by Family Fare Supermarkets. World-Herald sports staff pick five Omaha-metro nominees from any NSAA sport each week during the school sports calendar, and the public votes online for the winner at omaha.com.

KOLN Lincoln Athlete of the Week

Lincoln · KOLN/KGIN 10/11 NOW (1011now.com)

KOLN/KGIN's 10/11 NOW covers Lincoln-area prep sports with a weekly Athlete of the Week profile at 1011now.com. Confirmed programs include Lincoln Northeast; the profile format (public vote vs. staff pick) is not fixed and should be checked on each week's live post before assuming a ballot exists.

MileSplit Nebraska Athlete of the Week

Statewide Nebraska · MileSplit Nebraska (ne.milesplit.com)

MileSplit Nebraska's weekly Athlete of the Week fan poll at ne.milesplit.com is the state's only prep vote reserved for track and field and cross country. It runs during each in-season window alongside a separate season-ending Athlete of the Year vote, drawing a small but unusually attentive track-parent audience.

NebPreps Football Player of the Year

Statewide Nebraska · NebPreps / Hurrdat Sports

NebPreps, the Nebraska high school football arm of Hurrdat Sports, splits this annual honor between a public fan vote and a panel score, not clicks alone. The winner is read out live each December at Hurrdat Sports Bar in the La Vista/Papillion area, a format no other Nebraska football poll runs.

Nebraska / Lincoln Journal Star Liberty First Athlete of the Week

Lincoln · Lincoln Journal Star (Lee Enterprises)

The Lincoln Journal Star's weekly multi-sport fan vote for Lincoln-area prep athletes, sponsored by Liberty First Credit Union. Editors nominate 5–6 athletes per week, anyone can vote with no account required, and the ballot closes around Tuesday–Wednesday — with the winner announced later that same week.

Nebraska High School Athlete of the Week

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

Free weekly statewide fan poll hosted by High School Sports on SI (SBLive / Sports Illustrated) at si.com/high-school/nebraska, covering all NSAA-member schools across Nebraska each sports season. Nominations by email; unlimited voting per session; results announced Sunday night.

Nebraska High School Player of the Year

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

Annual statewide fan vote hosted by High School on SI (SBLive / Sports Illustrated) at si.com/high-school/nebraska, recognising Nebraska's top prep athlete each sport season. Free to vote; no registration required. 2024 football winner: Gretna QB Michael Knudsen with 60.19% of 4,690 votes cast.

Nebraska State Fair Galaxy of Stars Talent Search

A $1,500-plus-Nashville-package talent search the Nebraska State Fair runs itself. Vocalists, dancers, instrumentalists, and variety performers of any age post a semifinal video; the public vote is one input alongside judges' scores, and finalists perform live on the Fair stage.

Omaha Sports Commission Awards (OSCA)

Omaha · Omaha Sports Commission (omahasports.org)

The Omaha Sports Commission's annual awards program, honoring competitors from high school through professional and Olympic-level ranks across the Omaha metro. Public online voting runs at omahasports.org/OSCASvoting for about two weeks each April, with the 2026 cycle marking the program's eighth edition and winners recognized at a banquet every May.

Omaha World-Herald Athlete of the Year

Omaha · Omaha World-Herald (Lee Enterprises)

Annual honor from the Omaha World-Herald (omaha.com) recognizing Nebraska's top boys and girls high school athletes each school year. Public nominations arrive across the season; the sports desk narrows the field to finalists announced in June, then picks the winners editorially. Reader interest shapes the process, but no public vote count decides it.

OrthoNebraska Athlete of the Week (Lincoln)

Lincoln · Lincoln Journal Star (Lee Enterprises)

The Lincoln Journal Star runs an OrthoNebraska-branded weekly athlete recognition inside its Prep Extra high school sports section at journalstar.com. OrthoNebraska sponsors this Lincoln-market edition alongside the Omaha World-Herald's separate ballot of the same name: same sponsor, two independent papers, two independent polls.

OrthoNebraska Athlete of the Week (Omaha World-Herald)

Omaha · Omaha World-Herald (Lee Enterprises)

The Omaha World-Herald's weekly fan-vote poll, sponsored by OrthoNebraska orthopedic health system. Editors nominate four standout performers from any NSAA sport; fans vote at omaha.com (or Go.Omaha.com/athlete), and the winner is announced Wednesday. Covers the full Omaha metro plus statewide Nebraska athletes across all three NSAA seasons.

OrthoNebraska Athlete of the Week (Omaha)

Omaha · Omaha World-Herald (Lee Enterprises)

A weekly public fan vote from the Omaha World-Herald, sponsored by OrthoNebraska, spotlighting NSAA athletes across football, basketball, soccer, baseball, and volleyball. Coverage runs at omaha.com/sports/high-school and on the paper's Instagram account, @WorldHerald; fans cast a vote directly at go.omaha.com/athlete, with no purchase or subscription required to click.

Best of B2B (Omaha Magazine)

Omaha Magazine's Best of B2B is a separate annual readers-choice program from the consumer-facing Best of Omaha, with business owners doing the voting at omahamagazine.com/best-of-b2b/, a Dec 31 close date, and a run of 17-plus years behind the 2025 winners now being announced.

Best of Grand Island

The Grand Island Independent's readers'-choice ballot for Hall County and central Nebraska, where completing the vote enters a reader in a $500 Visa gift card drawing, on the same platform other Nebraska Lee papers use.

Best of Kearney

Kearney Hub's own readers'-choice ballot for Kearney and Buffalo County, promoted directly by local businesses through the Hub's site and social channels rather than a shared regional poll.

Best of Omaha

Omaha Magazine's annual Best of Omaha readers-choice poll, run since 1992 at omahamagazine.com/vote, uses a blank ballot: voters write in their own picks rather than choosing from a preset list, and the site allows one vote per verified email to curb stuffing, with 2026 winners now being announced.

Best of the Big O

Omaha · The Reader

Omaha has two readers-choice polls, and this is the alt-weekly one: The Reader's Best of the Big O, voted at vote.thereader.com, capped by IP address and counted by an outside accounting firm.

CommunityVotes Bellevue NE

Where does Bellevue, Nebraska actually vote for its favorite local businesses? At bellevuene.communityvotes.com, operated locally under the national CommunityVotes network, with 2026 voting confirmed open from Wednesday, August 26 at 6:00 a.m. through Sunday, September 27 at 11:59 p.m. Four consecutive years, 2023 through 2026, back this cycle. A category list and a voting limit are not published; confirm both on the live ballot each cycle.

CommunityVotes Lincoln

Lincoln, Nebraska hosts CommunityVotes Lincoln, a ballot separate from the city's better-known Lincoln's Choice Awards, operated locally under the national CommunityVotes network at lincoln.communityvotes.com. Voting for 2026 is confirmed open Wednesday, August 26 at 6:00 a.m. through Sunday, September 27 at 11:59 p.m., a fourth consecutive year following 2023 through 2025. Exactly which categories run, and how a vote limit might apply, still needs confirming on the live ballot each cycle.

Lincoln Parade of Homes

Home Builders Association of Lincoln's Parade of Homes, an annual builder-industry showcase at hbal.org/parade held across spring and fall cycles. HBAL member builders open newly built model homes for public touring; whether a formal People's Choice vote is active each cycle isn't confirmed here, so check hbal.org/parade before planning a campaign.

Lincoln's Choice Awards

Lincoln Journal Star and GoodLifeNetwork's annual Lincoln's Choice Awards, fan nominated and fan voted with no judges' panel. The 2025 cycle logged roughly 89,000 nominations and 369,000 votes, with Union Bank & Trust presenting and winners honored each April at the Rococo Theatre, streamed live on GoodLifeNetwork.tv.

Omaha Food Fight (1620 The Zone)

1620 The Zone, an Omaha radio station, runs Omaha Food Fight on Second Street ballot software at 1620thezone.secondstreetapp.com, a public vote built specifically around Omaha, Nebraska's restaurants and eateries. Two editions have run so far, 2025 and 2026, with 2026's nominations open from March 2 through March 13. Neither the category list nor a voting ceiling is printed there; confirm on the live ballot each cycle, since that page is the only place either detail will actually show up.

Omaha Metro Builders Parade of Homes

Metro Omaha Builders Association's annual Spring Parade of Homes tour at omahaspringparadeofhomes.com, showcasing new model homes across Omaha's growth suburbs with a People's Choice public-vote component layered onto MOBA's own juried awards, though its active status should be confirmed each cycle on the live site.

Scottsbluff Star-Herald Readers' Choice

The Star-Herald's annual Readers' Choice ballot for the Scottsbluff-Gering metro and the Nebraska Panhandle, voted directly on the SecondStreet form with no separate nomination round.

Capital Humane Society Tails and Trails Pet Photo Contest

Lincoln · Capital Humane Society

Lincoln, Nebraska's Capital Humane Society raises shelter funds through the Tails & Trails Pet Photo Contest, hosted at gogophotocontest.com/tailstrails24 on GoGo Photo Contest. Two rounds are confirmed, 2024 and 2025, both opening in May, and each vote counts as a one-dollar donation. Whether the page lists judging categories or limits repeat voting goes unaddressed; confirm both on the live ballot each cycle.