Voting, food trends and women’s sports—the final ballot of the 2024 Best Of Monterey County® Readers’ Poll is live.

Keely Richter here, getting jazzed about voting.

I love voting—primaries, generals, mid-terms, special elections, group decisions about where to go for dinner—you name it, I love it. As such, I am getting pretty excited about voting in November (and I hope you are, too).

We don’t have to wait until November to cast a ballot, though. An opportunity to vote has just opened up—the final ballot in the 2024 Best Of Monterey County® Readers’ Poll is live.

From June 27 through July 14, over 37,000 nominations were made in the name of finding the best people, places and things in 272 categories. Those ballots were tabulated and the top nominees are now in a drop-down menu for each category.

I’ve spent some time looking at the finalists and I’ve got a few observations:

1. You guys voted for food trends that Features Editor Dave Faries has been extolling in the pages of the Weekly lately. Finalists include Korean food, Nashville-style fried chicken sandwiches and upscale Mexican food.
2. The spotlight on women’s sports is not exclusive to the Olympic stage, but also here in Monterey County—three of the top five finalists for Best College Team are nods to our top local female athletes.
3. Most voters waited until the final week of the nomination period to cast their ballots—the day with the highest turnout was July 11.

There are hundreds of local businesses, people and places in the finals and they each got there because you love them. Continue to show them your support and remind your friends to log in and have their say, too.

This act of encouraging your community to vote is also something I encourage you to carry through into the election in November. Think of Best Of as a practice round and don’t wait till the last day—Aug. 21—to cast your ballot.

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Don’t delay, vote today for the Best Of Monterey County®. Soledad approves emergency well repairs.