Question 1

What is Best of Coastal Mississippi?

Accepted Answer

The Best of Coastal Mississippi invites, engages, and allows you, our audience, to recognize the best businesses, organizations, and people in our area. Our focus is on businesses and professionals who support, serve and do business in the coastal Mississippi area.

Question 2

When do nominations and voting start?

Accepted Answer

Nominations and voting will take place online at VoteBOCM.com.

Question 3

Do I have to register?

Accepted Answer

Nomination surveys require registration of basic information from the submitter for when we need to clarify an entry. We do offer you the opportunity to share your name and email with us so that we can keep you up to date on the program. You may submit your nominees in any given topic area and return to complete the survey any time before the deadline.
 
Registration may be necessary for the voting phase to promote fair voting. You may be asked for your name and email address.

Question 4

Can I vote by paper or in person?

Accepted Answer

No. All nominations and voting are done through our website and links to our voting platform at VoteBOCM.com.

Question 5

How does nominating work?

Accepted Answer

The nomination period begins Monday, February 16 at 12PM, and ends at 5PM on Friday, February 27 at VoteBOCM.com.

We rely on our audience to supply us with the names of outstanding people, businesses, and establishments in over 250 categories. Once the nominees are finalized, our audience is asked to vote on one choice in each category. Per our guidelines, you are allowed to nominate without limits and during voting, you can vote once every 24 hours.
 
Our audience and business owners nominate their favorites by selecting one of 12 topic areas (Eat & Drink, Education, Financial, Health & Beauty, Home & Garden, Hotels & Casinos, Law, Motors, Real Estate, Services, Shopping, Things to Do). Nominees should be individuals and businesses that serve the coastal Mississippi area.
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Nominating is as simple as entering a name and city in text entry fields. It’s best, but not required, to provide additional information on the nominee so that we can verify them (Phone number, address, URL). You may return any time before 5PM on Friday, February 27 to add nominations.
 
Businesses with multiple locations appear as a single nomination for the voting phase unless otherwise specified by the business.
 
Business associates and advertisers of Sun Herald and any other owner-affiliated company are not given special treatment, including but not limited to our presenting sponsor.
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Users are not required to nominate in all categories but must submit the nomination form by hitting the "submit" button at the bottom of the page. Users are permitted to nominate a single business in more than one category.

Question 6

Will everyone who is nominated be on the ballot?

Accepted Answer

For a category to qualify for the ballot, there must be a minimum of 5 separate businesses that are competing for votes. If someone is nominated in a category that they do not qualify for, we make reasonable accommodations to move the nominee to a similar category. Nominees are then moved to the voting ballot.

The Sun Herald does not review or consider factors such as business licenses, trade affiliations, Better Business Bureau ratings, or online ratings when determining nominees or winners. Nominations and winners are solely chosen by the public through online nominations and voting.

Question 7

I’ve been nominated, what is required of me?

Accepted Answer

Businesses, organizations or individuals that are nominated by our audience will be placed on our ballot after they are verified. Should a business earn enough votes to be in the top two they may be required to complete a simple online questionnaire with basic business information including Name, Location(s), Year Established, Business Hours, Phone Number, Web Address (if any) and submit or make available a photo of the business, organization or individual. There is no cost or obligation to participate.

Don't forget to download your free promotional assets to use on your website, social media, and place of business to help promote yourself to customers and friends as a nominee during the voting period!

Question 8

How are votes tabulated?

Accepted Answer

The regular voting period begins at 12PM on Monday, March 23 and ends at  5PM on Friday, April 10 on VoteBOCM.com

Nominations and votes are tabulated by a third-party. Sun Herald and its affiliates do not know the results of the contest until after the votes are tabulated. In each category, our audience votes on their favorite nominee. You are permitted to vote in each category once per day. Businesses, institutions, individuals and schools are encouraged to promote the contest in order to gain nominations and/or votes. Competitive advertising, special offers, and campaigns are permitted; however, Sun Herald at its sole discretion reserves the right to exclude from the competition any businesses or individuals that engage in activities intended to “rig” or “fix” the voting process. Votes that are suspect may be disqualified in the count.
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Use of bots, robotic, repetitive, automatic, programmed, vote exchange websites, vote “farming”, scripts or other automated means designed to circumvent “one ballot per person per day” rule, are not allowed. Contestants discovered using these methods for vote acceleration are subject to suspected votes being disqualified without notice, and the jeopardy of the Contestant being completely disqualified and removed from the competition.

Contestants risk disqualification if they use promotions involving quid pro quo strategies, such as, but not limited to "vote for us, and we’ll enter you into a drawing" or "vote for us, and we’ll give you a discount." These approaches create an unfair advantage by incentivizing votes, which goes against the contest guidelines and can result in disqualification to ensure a level playing field for all participants.
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Business associates and advertisers of  Sun Herald and any other owner-affiliated company are not given special treatment, including but not limited to our presenting sponsor.

Question 9

Can I “write-in” a business during voting?

Accepted Answer

All nominations have to be verified prior to being placed on the final ballot. During the nomination process, we welcome all submissions.
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Our ballot is a closed ballot. However, we will consider late entries into an established category by request. After nominations end, all late entry requests must be emailed to support@BestofCoastalMississippi.com for consideration.

Question 10

When will winners be announced?

Accepted Answer

The names of the winners are posted and announced on Sunday, July 5, 2026 on BestofCoastalMississippi.com and published in our Best of Coastal Mississippi special winners' magazine. In the event of a tie in any category, more than one winner or runner-up may be awarded.

Question 11

I'm a winner. How do I get the official winner logo?

Accepted Answer

Best of Coastal Mississippi and the unique logos are the property of the Sun Herald and may only be used with express, written permission. Logos are licensed to winners at a marketing spend or direct payment of $1,195 or more. Best of Coastal Mississippi merchandise does not count toward the logo license spend. Contact Us to request your logo.

If you have already signed your logo agreement and have received your winner's logo, please review the Usage Guidelines here.

About Best of Coastal Mississippi