How Readers Choice Awards Winners Are Chosen, Notified and Taxed
Readers choice awards winners are chosen by public vote in most contests. USA TODAY Sports declares the ten leading vote recipients in each category its winners and announces them on its website when voting ends. Other organisers, such as Western Life Today, draw five prize winners at random from eligible entries and notify them by email before a stated deadline. Winners owe tax on prize value under IRS guidance.
By BuyVotesForContest editorial desk ยท Updated
Two ways a readers choice contest names its winners
Readers choice awards winners emerge through two broad mechanisms. The first is a public vote: the organiser opens a window, counts the ballots cast on its own platform, and declares the top entries. USA TODAY Sports works this way, naming the ten leading vote recipients in each category as its winners. The second is a random drawing from eligible entries, which Western Life Today uses to select its five participant-prize winners.
The distinction matters because the two structures reward different behaviour. A public vote favours the entrant who can mobilise genuine support from an existing audience. A random drawing treats every eligible entry identically, so the entrant's task is to enter correctly and completely rather than to campaign for support, which is a different skill entirely. Some organisers mix both, narrowing a field by vote and then handing the finalists to judges for placement.
Neither mechanism guarantees a particular result. A vote can swing in the final hours. A drawing is blind to merit by design. And the rules the organiser publishes decide which applies, so the entrant's first job is to read them before entering.
The label 'readers choice' signals that the audience has a hand in the outcome, but it does not tell you whether that hand is a vote, a nomination, or a mix. Only the terms do.
When the results become public
USA TODAY Sports announces its winners on its website at the conclusion of the voting period. That timing is deliberate: the organiser waits until the count is final before naming anyone. An entrant who wants to know the outcome watches the same page the public watches.
Western Life Today takes a different path. It notifies potential winners by email no later than June 1, 2026, using the address provided at entry. The notification reaches the entrant directly, before any public announcement. An entrant who gave an inactive or misspelled address at entry has no second channel, so the address matters as much as the entry itself.
The two models produce different waits. A vote-based contest publishes once the window closes, which can be days after the last ballot. A drawing-based contest can run weeks longer, because the organiser needs time to verify eligibility and contact each selected entrant before naming the final list. Readers choice awards winners are named only after verification is complete.
What a winner owes in tax
Readers choice awards winners owe tax on what they receive. Western Life Today states plainly that its winners are responsible for any taxes on their prizes. That line shifts the reporting duty to the winner, not the organiser.
The Internal Revenue Service has its own threshold for paperwork. The IRS raised its Form 1099-MISC reporting threshold for prize and award payments made after December 31, 2025. An organiser that pays a prize above that threshold issues the form. The winner reports the full prize value on their own return regardless of whether a form arrives.
A prize in goods carries the same duty as one in cash. The organiser's rules decide who pays any withholding; the tax return is always the winner's own filing.
An entrant who expects to win can ask the organiser in advance what forms it will issue (and what value it will report). That question, asked before entering, prevents every surprise at filing time.
What no organiser can promise
No organiser can guarantee readers choice awards winners in advance, and no third party can deliver a place on the list. A public vote counts the ballots it receives; an organiser that follows its own rules will not adjust the count after the window closes. Anyone who claims otherwise is describing a service the organiser's terms do not allow.
Disqualification is the other certainty. Organisers reserve the right to remove entries that breach the rules they published. A disqualified entry drops from the list whatever its vote total was. The checks an organiser runs, and the evidence it accepts, are stated in the terms.
The vote decides the outcome. The organiser verifies eligibility. The rules bind both sides.
- An organiser that follows its own terms will not reinstate a disqualified entry, whatever the vote total was.
- The rules on eligibility bind the eventual winner as much as the first entrant.
- The organiser publishes which checks it runs; the terms, not the count, settle a dispute.
Reading the rules before entering
The terms that produce readers choice awards winners answer the questions that matter: who may enter, how the winner is picked, when notification happens, and who pays tax. The organiser's name, the voting window and the prize description appear in the same document. An entrant who reads those terms before entering avoids every surprise on the list above.
The terms also state what the organiser can see. A platform logs each ballot with a timestamp and an identifier. An organiser reviewing a suspicious pattern can ask for evidence before certifying a result. That review step is ordinary, published, and within the organiser's own discretion.
What the terms rarely state is how a tie is broken, how long verification takes, or whether a winner who misses the notification deadline forfeits the prize. Those gaps are real. An entrant who needs certainty on a specific point asks the organiser directly, in writing, before entering.
Where the winners list lives
Readers choice awards winners lists appear on the organiser's own website, not on a third-party aggregator. USA TODAY Sports posts its winners at the conclusion of the voting period. Western Life Today emails potential winners first and publishes later. The list an entrant should trust is the one the organiser itself controls.
Year after year, the same organiser publishes its results in the same place. An entrant who wants to see past winners before entering the next edition checks the organiser's own archive. That archive is the only record that carries the organiser's own verification behind it.
- Check the organiser's website after the voting window closes.
- Look for the same page name or section each year.
- Treat any list on another site as unverified until the organiser confirms it.
What carries over from one year to the next
Organisers publish readers choice awards winners each year in the same place, using the same method. The same window, the same counting method, the same notification channel and the same tax language appear year after year. An entrant who reads one edition's terms has read the shape of the next.
What changes is the field. New entrants join, former winners may or may not return, and the vote totals shift. The 2025 readers choice awards winners list tells a 2026 entrant nothing about who will win this time; it tells them how the contest runs. That distinction is the useful one.
| Organiser | Selection method | Notification channel |
|---|---|---|
| USA TODAY Sports | Ten leading vote recipients per category | Website announcement at the close of voting |
| Western Life Today | Random drawing from eligible entries | Email to the address given at entry |
| Any US organiser | Publishes its own method in the terms | States its own deadline in the terms |
Step by step
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Read the notification email
A potential winner receives the organiser's notice at the address given at entry. Reply within any deadline the notice states, or the prize can go elsewhere.
-
Verify the sender
Check that the message comes from the organiser's own domain before you reply with any personal detail.
-
Prepare for tax reporting
Ask the organiser what forms it will issue. The IRS treats prize value as reportable income regardless of whether a form arrives.
-
Watch for the public announcement
USA TODAY Sports posts its winners on its website when the voting period ends. Check there if no email has arrived.
Questions
How are readers choice awards winners chosen in a public vote?
The organiser counts every ballot cast during the stated window and ranks entries by total. USA TODAY Sports names the ten leading vote recipients in each category. The winner is the entry with the highest count at the close, subject to the organiser's verification of eligibility.
When will the readers choice awards 2026 winners list be published?
USA TODAY Sports publishes its winners on its website at the conclusion of the voting period. Western Life Today notifies its five prize winners by email no later than June 1, 2026. The exact date depends on which organiser runs the contest you entered.
Do contest winners owe tax on the prize?
Yes. Western Life Today states that its winners are responsible for any taxes on their prizes. The IRS treats contest prizes as income and has raised its Form 1099-MISC reporting threshold for prize payments made after December 31, 2025. The winner's own return reports the full value.
Can an organiser pick winners by drawing instead of votes?
Yes. Western Life Today selects five participant-prize winners by random drawing from all eligible entries received. The drawing treats every complete entry identically, so popularity plays no part. The organiser's own terms state which method applies.
Can a readers choice awards winner be disqualified after the announcement?
Yes, if the organiser finds the entry breached its published rules. The terms reserve this right, and a disqualified entry drops from the list whatever its vote total was. The checks the organiser runs are stated in the rules.
What should a potential winner do after receiving notification?
Reply within the deadline the notice states and confirm the sender's identity first. Western Life Today contacts potential winners at the email address given at entry, so an entrant who provided an inactive address has no fallback channel.
Sources
- usatoday.com. usatoday.com/sports/readers-choice-awards/rules/.
- usatoday.com. usatoday.com/sports/readers-choice-awards/rules/.
- westernlifetoday.com. westernlifetoday.com/2026-readers-choice/.
- westernlifetoday.com. westernlifetoday.com/2026-readers-choice/.
- irs.gov. irs.gov/faqs/small-business-self-employed-other-business/form-1099-nec-independent-contractors/form-1099-nec-independent-contractors.
This site does not sell votes for readers choice contests and does not promise a win. No organiser can guarantee a result in a public vote. We never advise on tools that cast repeated votes, because such conduct breaches the rules organisers publish. What this page can do is explain how winners are chosen, notified and taxed, using the organisers' own terms and IRS guidance.
A contest vote sits under two rulebooks, the platform's and the organiser's. On CuteBaby, voters get ten free daily votes that expire at midnight, and an account needs a South African mobile number. Organisers then enforce their own terms: Darley may disqualify and replace a potential winner who does not follow its rules, and the Queen's Commonwealth Writing Competition disqualifies over-length entries automatically. An order for contest votes changes none of that.
Contest voting has a rhythm of its own. The Arizona State Fair includes live audience voting on every qualifying night, and the Ernie Ball contest measures online activity throughout its contest period. A count that builds across the window, from separate voters, matches that rhythm. None of this is a method for passing an organiser's checks, and an organiser can still disqualify an entry it doubts.
In the United States, the FTC says a real sweepstakes is free and decided by chance, and that a skills contest can ask you to pay to play. Canada's Competition Bureau says a purchase requirement should be prominently disclosed. Those rules govern entry to a sweepstakes or promotion, and whether paying for votes in a contest is lawful where you live is a question for a lawyer. No order is taken for a sweepstakes or other chance draw, for a political ballot, or for a contest whose rules bar outside votes.
The part of an order that never reaches the contest's own count is refunded once the organiser's voting has closed. America's Favorite Pet calls its dates approximate and lets its operator extend deadlines, so that moment is the organiser's to set. A result, a disqualification and a voided vote are never refunded. At IODC, public votes and engagement do not by themselves decide the winners, and no refund changes how a contest weighs them.