The Ruthies Community's Choice Awards (Daily News Journal): How Voting Works & How to Win

The Ruthies Community's Choice Awards: four straight editions on a newspaper-run Second Street ballot

The Ruthies Community's Choice Awards is run by the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal, not through the CommunityVotes network that covers Chattanooga elsewhere in Tennessee. The program sits on the Second Street ballot platform at dnj.gannettcontests.com, with a separate nomination address, a separate voting address, and a separate winners address for each year, the current cycle live at dnj.gannettcontests.com/2026-The-Ruthies-Communitys-Choice-Awards.

Four confirmed editions run back to back: 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. The 2026 voting ballot ran July 17 through August 1 and has already closed. The 2023 edition's own address sat on a different domain entirely, dnj.secondstreetapp.com, before the program moved onto the dnj.gannettcontests.com address it uses now.

No published roster of categories and no daily-vote rule exist on that page; confirm on the live ballot each cycle, since four straight editions have not settled either detail publicly.

A Gannett newspaper ballot standing apart from Tennessee's CommunityVotes markets

Unlike CommunityVotes Chattanooga, run through the national CommunityVotes network, The Ruthies Community's Choice Awards answers to a single newspaper, the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal, on the Second Street ballot platform Gannett uses across many of its local papers.

None of those six other programs runs on Second Street or answers to the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal, and nothing about a nomination or a win on The Ruthies carries over to any of them.

Four straight years, still no printed category list

A four-edition run is longer than some newer Tennessee ballots can show, yet the category list and any daily-vote rule stay unpublished across all four years alike. Dnj.gannettcontests.com, checked directly, is where that gap actually gets filled once the paper decides to print it.

Murfreesboro's own ballot, without a wider trade-area guess

Murfreesboro is the city tied to The Ruthies Community's Choice Awards, and nothing about this program's confirmed history extends that label to a wider readership. No neighborhood list, no adjoining-county note, and no line about readers from outside Murfreesboro appear in what's confirmed here.

The Murfreesboro Daily News Journal runs many promotions on its Second Street account beyond this one ballot, most of them unrelated sweepstakes tied to travel, home improvement or retail giveaways rather than to The Ruthies itself. Only the dated 2026 voting window, July 17 through August 1, belongs to this specific program.

A supporter should read the coverage the way this program's own page states it: Murfreesboro. Anything about a wider county readership is that supporter's own read of the situation, since nothing confirmed here spells out a boundary either way.

What four consecutive editions and a mid-summer voting window actually confirm

Four editions in a row, 2023 through 2026, is a steadier confirmed run than several newer Tennessee ballots can claim, and the 2026 cycle's own dates, a voting ballot open July 17 through August 1, are as specific as this program's confirmed detail gets. A category list and a daily-vote rule stayed unpublished across all four years, which says more about how the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal runs this ballot than about any single cycle being incomplete.

The 2023 edition's separate dnj.secondstreetapp.com address, since replaced by dnj.gannettcontests.com for every later year, is a reminder that even a confirmed four-year program can shift its own web address between cycles. A supporter bookmarking last year's link risks landing on a page the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal has already retired.

A submission through the nomination stage is one step; the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal alone decides how nominations turn into the ballot voters actually see. Is buying votes legal covers where a genuine push toward a ballot like this crosses into risk, worth reading before committing real budget toward a fifth Ruthies cycle. Buying votes online explains what outside help can and cannot change on a Second Street ballot such as this one, and award-vote campaign planning steps through building support for a readers'-choice program shaped like The Ruthies.