How public voting works — and what it can’t do

01Where public voting applies

Public voting is used only in categories designated as public-facing. Most categories are judged only. Where a category uses public voting, that is stated clearly on the category itself.

02What a public vote can and cannot do

• It is a capped, weighted input — never the whole result.
• It can never outweigh the judges.
• It cannot, by itself, decide a winner.
• It adds public confidence to a result that is still led by professional judging.

03One person, one vote

• Votes are verified — by email confirmation and equivalent checks.
• Duplicate and repeat votes are detected and removed.
• Only validated votes are counted toward the public score.

04Defending the vote

• Automated, scripted and bot voting is detected and discarded.
• Unusual patterns are reviewed before any result is validated.
• Voting from parties directly connected to an entrant — for example its own employees and directors — is excluded from that entrant’s category.

05Fairness regardless of size

Because the public score is capped and weighted, a business with a very large following cannot brute-force a result over a smaller one. A big audience can help turnout — it cannot change the weighting, and it cannot outweigh the judges.

Reach can raise your turnout. It cannot buy your result.

06What is not allowed

• Vote-buying or any payment in exchange for votes.
• Incentivised voting that breaches the published rules.
• Coordinated manipulation or organised gaming of the vote.
• Any attempt to vote as, or on behalf of, someone else.

07Validation and locking

Voting closes at a published time. The results are validated, cleaned of invalid votes, and locked before being converted into the approved public score and combined by the system with the judges’ score, according to the predefined weightings.