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Each year, thousands of votes are cast in our Readers’ Choice contest as residents weigh in on their favorite businesses, restaurants, services and places.

There is not a day you can go in Washington Parish and not see a Readers’ Choice logo on a door, wall of a business or website. This year, we expect record turnout as people again make their voices heard.

We examined the voting process this year, and are pleased to roll out a new and improved way to cast your ballot for Readers’ Choice in 2021.

We moved to a state-of-the-art online voting platform that is top of the line in online voting systems for such contests. This allows for more secure voting and automatic tabulation of votes. The new-and-improved voting system is mobile-friendly and easier to use.

We are also moving to a two-phase ballot, much like a primary and a general election. The nomination phase of Readers’ Choice is a write-in ballot to nominate your favorite businesses by sub-category. The nomination phase begins Monday, May 3, and will be open through the end of the month. The top three businesses per sub-category will then move forward to the voting phase.

The voting phase of Readers’ Choice will start on Thursday, July 1, and go through the end of that month. Choosing between the top three nominated businesses per sub-category will make the voting phase easier and faster. Winners will be contacted after the voting ends.

The winners of Readers’ Choice 2021 will be announced to the public in the fall through a special section and will also be online on our website.

Starting Monday, you will be able to visit online at www.bogalusadailynews.com/contest to contribute nominations for Readers’ Choice. Please note you will have to provide a valid name and email address in order to participate.

For those who wish to participate by manually writing in names of their nominees, we will also begin publishing a ballot for our print editions in May, starting with Wednesday, May 5. But you can get a head start by nominating online as soon as Monday.

Good luck to all of our businesses, and thanks for reading The Daily News.

Justin Schuver is the publisher and editor for The Daily News. You can email him at justin.schuver@bogalusadailynews.com.