Jackson Free Press

You may have noticed the Best of Jackson ballot in this issue (page 14) or the alert on the cover—it's that time of year again! Best of Jackson voting is underway. This year, however, things are a little different, so we want to make sure our readers know how this works.

For the first time, voting will take place in two phases for the Best of Jackson 2014 awards. Phase one is the "write-in" ballot you may be accustomed to.

This year we're calling it the Nominations ballot. The Nominations ballot is in the paper this week and available online at jfp.ms/ballot/ until Nov. 17, 2013, at 11:59 p.m. That will be the end of phase one.

Using your write-in votes, we'll determine the finalists in each category. On Nov. 27, 2013, we'll open up a new Finalists ballot, which will be a multiple-choice ballot.

From those finalists, you will select your winners in each category; from those votes, we'll determine who won first, second and third place. That ballot will close on Dec. 15, 2013, at 11:59 p.m.

As usual, the winners will be announced to the public in the Best of Jackson 2014 issue, scheduled for Jan. 22, 2014.

The Best of Jackson party (get your invite by subscribing to JFP Daily at www.jfpdaily.com) will take place on Jan. 26, 2014—the last Sunday in January as always.

Why the change in the ballots? We're hoping that the second-level of balloting will allow more of our voters to reflect on the finalists and determine who they think in the best in that category—and not just the first (or only) name that comes to mind, as can often happen with the write-in ballot.

With the two-level balloting, both "popular" and "great" have an opportunity to compete for first place in Best of Jackson.
 We hope the new two-tier ballot will help make sure the "best" bubbles up to the top every year.

(It also makes it a little easier on us in the final count, because some of y'all really have a lot of trouble spelling your favorite people and places!)

There is one downside—to get it all done, we've got a compressed schedule, especially for potential nominees, so we encourage you to GO VOTE immediately. Visit page 14 to vote by hand, or jfp.ms/ballot to vote online with a desktop, tablet or mobile device.

This year you can also vote via the Jackson Free Press Facebook page if you're using a desktop or most tablets.

Good luck to the Jackson area's best people, places, businesses and organizations!