Aberdeen Community's Choice Awards: How Voting Works & How to Win

What Aberdeen Community's Choice Awards actually confirms

A wide category slate, one vote a day, two confirmed years running. That is what the current page shows for Aberdeen Community's Choice Awards, a South Dakota business ballot organized by a Gannett-owned USA TODAY Network local paper on the Your Choice Awards platform.

The 2024 nomination and voting round ran December 2 through December 23, 2024. During that stretch, the ballot allowed one vote per person each day across its full category lineup. Voting then closed, and winners were announced February 8, 2025.

Beyond the once-a-day rule for the round itself, the exact list of category names is not published on the ballot page; confirm the current roster on the live ballot each cycle.

One vote a day, not one submission total

The clearest rule Aberdeen Community's Choice Awards actually publishes is the vote itself: during the round, a supporter may vote once a day for a favorite, repeated across as many categories as they like. That single stated cadence is the whole per-voter rule published, nothing about email verification, device limits, or eligibility beyond it.

Not published anywhere is the category list itself, business by business. Aberdeen businesses and their supporters are left to search the live ballot directly for a specific name inside that lineup; confirm on the live ballot each cycle since a fixed roster is not published here.

Why the 2024 dates matter for a supporter checking in later

A next round is expected, following the same nominate-then-vote structure the 2024 round used. Its exact opening date, closing date, and winner-announcement date are not yet published anywhere in what's confirmed; the December 2 through 23 window and the February 8 announcement above describe the 2024 cycle specifically, not a promise about when the next one starts.

Aberdeen's ballot next to South Dakota's other business polls

South Dakota runs several other online business and readers'-choice ballots, and Aberdeen Community's Choice Awards sits among a mix of statewide magazines, city-specific polls, and a separate CommunityVotes network.

Winning in Aberdeen settles nothing on any of those six ballots; each keeps its own judging, its own results page, and its own rules. A business hoping for recognition across several of these programs at once is really running that many separate pushes, since nothing links one South Dakota ballot's outcome to another's.

Building support for an Aberdeen business before the round closes

Two confirmed years, 2024 and 2025, give Aberdeen Community's Choice Awards a short but real history, not a long one. The clearest lesson from what's published is timing: the round itself opened December 2 and closed December 23, 2024, with the one-vote-a-day cadence rewarding supporters who come back rather than ones who vote only once.

A supporter who returns throughout the round, not just once, is what actually builds a total under a once-a-day cap like Aberdeen's. Fake or automated voting jeopardizes the whole entry, a risk that weighs heavier on a program only two years into its own run. Before paying for outside help, is buying votes legal draws the legal line first, buying votes online explains what that outside help typically involves, and award-vote campaign planning maps a plan around a daily-cap ballot with a wide category slate specifically.