Our annual Best of Bellevue reader poll is one of the more popular annual contests we implement — and with good reason!

We engage local residents to pick their favorite businesses and people in the contest’s diverse category groupings: Best Community Service, Health & Fitness, Everything Pets, Professional Services, Restaurants/Food and venues for great Shopping.

Each year, the Best of Bellevue contest becomes a fun showdown among local businesses and movers and shakers for annual bragging rights. In an ergonomic way, the Best of Bellevue results are a quick snapshot of our diverse, vibrant and growing community. It gets huge audience engagement. And the business community loves it!

The coveted contest results are also a good way to gauge grass-roots buzz for the best nonprofit, the best school, bakery, senior living facility, grocery, bank, the best in healthcare, elected officials, just about every category of cuisine, the best tattoo parlour and more. Public servants and business people with a lot of friends, family and local connections typically get a good showing, but newcomers and surprise entrants can often shine too.

So by popular demand, the Best of Bellevue reader poll has been going strong since going live the first week of April. We’ve received thousands of votes with creative additions for each category.

Check it out at vote.bellevuereporter.com. Enter the contest soon and fill out all your favorite candidates on the ballot categories. But hurry — voting ends on May 31. The winners will be announced in June.

Who will be nominated? Who will be picked by Bellevue residents? And who will win? You be the judge!

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William Shaw is General Manager of Sound Publishing’s Eastside Media Group and is a 4th generation Eastsider. Contact: wshaw@soundpublishing.com