Who’s the best?

Well, it’s that time of year again: “Best of.” We call it Best of Northern Nevada because we like to include everybody.

We’re not exactly taking it in a new direction, but we are making some changes. For example, we took out 20 or so of last year’s least-voted-on categories. We also added some, based on last year’s readers’ responses.

That’s first; second, we decided to tighten up the rules designed to prevent ballot-box stuffing. The reason for that is we learned that people can buy as many ballots as they want from our “Best of” competitor, the Reno Gazette-Journal. That allows for the people with the most money to buy the RG-J’s contest. Well, to me, “Best of” is about the readers, not the contestants. I, personally, use the results throughout the year. I guess that’s a long way of saying I really want to know who our readers say is the best whatever. I want our readers’ poll to have credibility and accurate winners.

Last year, we threw out a third of the ballots because they appeared to be stuffed. I’m hoping the new rules will help weed out the most obvious cheaters. Also, I’ve lowered the number of categories that must be filled out. Hopefully, readers won’t have any trouble figuring out 10 categories that they really believe are the best (as opposed to just filling out categories in order to meet the minimum).

So, anyway, this week, the ballot entry begins on page 35. Please don’t forget, the easiest and cheapest way to do a ballot (not to mention, the easiest for us to count) is on our Internet site, www.newsreview.com.

Reason to vote No. 40: People who complain without making efforts to change things are the worst kind of hypocrites. Voting is the most elementary form of activism. Not voting is the most profound form of inactivism.