People’s Choice voting rules

How to vote

  1. Point your phone’s camera at the QR code on the sign beside an artwork.
  2. Open the link your phone offers. This shows you the artwork’s page.
  3. Press the Vote for this artwork button. Your vote is recorded only when you press that button.

If your camera will not read the code, type the artwork code printed under it into the Find an artwork box on the event page. The code looks like A-101.

Opening a page does not cast a vote

Scanning a QR code, previewing a link, or opening an artwork page never records a vote. Nothing is counted until you deliberately press the vote button. This is why an accidental scan, a link preview in a messaging app, or a search engine visiting the page cannot affect the result.

How many times can I vote?

Each show sets one of two rules, and the event page tells you which one is in effect:

  • One vote per artwork. You can vote for as many different artworks as you like, but only once for each. This is the usual rule.
  • One vote for the whole show. You choose a single favorite.

If you try to vote a second time, we will tell you plainly that your vote is already recorded. Nothing goes wrong and your original vote still counts.

Voting times

Voting opens and closes at times the organizers set, shown on the event page in Central Time. The closing time is exact: a vote submitted at the closing minute is not accepted. Organizers can also open or close voting by hand if something at the show requires it.

How we tell voters apart — and the limits of it

You do not need an account, an email address, or a phone number to vote. Instead, your browser stores a small random identifier the first time you vote. We keep only a scrambled version of it, which lets us recognize a repeat vote without knowing anything about you.

We want to be straightforward about what this does and does not do. It is a practical deterrent, not proof that each vote comes from a different person. Someone determined to vote more than once could clear their browser data, use private browsing, switch browsers, or use another device. We have chosen not to require registration, email confirmation, or text-message verification, because that would make voting slow and awkward for the many honest visitors in order to inconvenience the few. People’s Choice is a friendly audience award, and the rules are built for that.

Fair play

Organizers can review voting activity for unusual patterns and may set aside votes that are clearly not genuine. Votes are never set aside simply because several people used the same Wi-Fi network — at a busy show, almost everyone does.

Results

Results are not shown publicly while voting is open unless the organizers choose to publish them. Where two or more artworks finish level, the result is reported as a tie; the organizers decide how to handle it. There is no automatic tie-break.

Questions

Please speak to a volunteer at the show, or see the privacy notice for how we handle information.