Washington Informer's Best of The DMV: How Voting Works & How to Win

2,000 nominees, 15,000 votes, and a five-week window in year one

The Washington Informer didn't launch Best of The DMV quietly. The Inaugural 2025 cycle pulled in more than 2,000 nominees and 15,000 votes, with the actual voting running September 1 through October 3. Those are specific, publisher-stated numbers for a first-year program, not a soft estimate, and they set a real bar for anyone weighing whether the ballot is worth entering.

The program itself sits squarely with The Washington Informer, a Washington, D.C. newspaper, running the ballot directly on its own site rather than through a third-party contest platform. Coverage spans the full DMV region, the District, Maryland, and Virginia together, recognizing businesses, organizations, and individuals, with a stated sub-focus on Black-owned businesses specifically.

Anyone entering should treat washingtoninformer.com/best-of-the-dmv/ itself as the authority on anything past that table, particularly the 2026 cycle's actual day-level dates.

One region, several ballots, and this one isn't like the others

The DMV doesn't lack for best-of competitions. Washingtonian Best of Washington, D.C., and Washington City Paper Best of DC both run their own multi-category ballots out of established city magazines, distinct from The Washington Informer's community-newspaper approach. Washingtonian's Reader Restaurant Survey narrows to dining specifically, while the RAMMYs is a hospitality-industry award built around the region's restaurant trade rather than a public readers' ballot at all.

What sets Best of The DMV apart isn't just the publisher. It's the stated sub-focus on Black-owned businesses layered onto a full-region ballot, and a first-year turnout, 2,000-plus nominees and 15,000 votes, that most brand-new local ballots don't reach in year one. BroadwayWorld Washington D.C. Awards, by contrast, covers theater specifically, a different audience entirely from a general community-and-business ballot.

Not to be confused with a sports poll sharing the same home city

DC MileSplit Girls Athlete of the Week recognizes track and cross country athletes and has nothing to do with Best of The DMV beyond both being based in the same metro area. A nominated restaurant or nonprofit isn't competing against a runner for attention on the same ballot; the two programs don't overlap at all.

What the DMV label actually spans

"DMV" stands for the District, Maryland, and Virginia together, and Best of The DMV takes that literally rather than narrowing to the District alone. The Washington Informer's own program description covers businesses, organizations, and individuals shaping all three jurisdictions, with no printed line separating one from another for eligibility purposes.

The stated Black-owned business sub-focus applies across that same three-jurisdiction reach; the program's own materials tie it to the community The Washington Informer itself has served across its long history as a newspaper, not to one particular neighborhood carved out from the rest. A nominator based anywhere within Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia has the same standing to enter as one based anywhere else in the DMV, since the program draws no narrower boundary than the three-jurisdiction label itself.

Nothing published narrows the DMV label any further than that, and no separate rules appear for one jurisdiction over another anywhere on washingtoninformer.com/best-of-the-dmv/. A nominator weighing whether a specific address counts should confirm on the live ballot each cycle rather than lean on a guess built from outside geography.

Building real support before the next window closes

With a confirmed 2026 cycle but no published day-level dates yet, the practical move is watching washingtoninformer.com/best-of-the-dmv/ directly as the fall approaches rather than assuming last year's September 1 start repeats exactly. A nominee who already knows the site, having entered or watched the Inaugural 2025 cycle, has a real head start over one discovering the ballot cold.

Real supporters, sent the correct link and asked more than once across the window, are what actually built a 15,000-vote first year; a newspaper running a ballot at that scale can flag and drop entries it judges manufactured. Is buying votes legal walks through the legal boundaries worth understanding before any budget goes toward a push like this one, and how online contest votes actually work covers mechanics that apply whether the specific 2026 rules end up matching 2025's or not.