For years, Tri-Lakes residents have looked forward to voting in the Readers’ Choice contest to support local business, organizations, people and attractions — clipping out the colorful, one-page ballots from the newspapers and nominating and voting for their favorites. It’s the biggest contest of the year, and we’re proud to host it as a way to recognize the places and people that make this region special.

This year, there’s no more clipping involved. We are making the contest bigger and better than ever, providing even more visibility to area businesses and organizations, by going digital.

The biggest change we’re making this year is online voting. We’re hoping that this will give a larger number of residents the chance to vote for their favorites with ease — from a computer, tablet or smartphone.

Phase 1: The nomination process. We encourage you to support local businesses by nominating your favorites now through Sunday, March 12.

Phase 2: Daily voting. Starting on April 22, you can vote once per category per day, so you can really show your support for your favorites.

Phase 3: New voting round. When a category has a big field of nominees, it’s possible to win with only a small percent of total votes. Once all of the nominations have been made, we will have a voting round to select winners from the nominees.

Results will be announced in both newspapers in June.

To nominate and vote in the Best of the Mountains Readers’ Choice Contest, go to www.lakeplacidnews./best.