Best restaurant? Best customer service? Business of the Year?

These are among the categories to be decided by you, the reader.

Best of Whidbey 2020 voting launches on Tuesday, Sept. 1, and continues through Wednesday, Sept. 30. It’s your chance to recognize those people, organizations and businesses that you believe are making a difference in your community.

It’s a fun contest, but one that some people take more seriously than others. Some also make it out to be more complicated than it really is.

Getting on the ballot is really very simple. It takes a minimum of five nominations. This could be your friends, family or customers. It doesn’t cost a cent to appear in the contest, and you don’t have to advertise, though it is the advertising support that makes the contest possible.

Once a nominee appears on the ballot, it’s up to you, the Whidbey News-Times and South Whidbey Record readers, to do the rest of the work. You can vote on your desktop, laptop, tablet or smart phone. It’s easy and free to do.

If you change your mind, you can change your vote later, as long as it’s before the contest closes.

And there’s no arguing that this is a strange time in our history, with COVID-19 changing how we live our everyday lives. The pandemic resulted in a couple of new categories this year — best curbside service and best takeout.

When we decided to move forward with this year’s contest, we were excited to see that community members were equally excited. Perhaps it’s a desire to return to some sense of normalcy in the midst of the abnormal. Whatever the reason, we hope you’ll go to www.whidbeynewstimes.com or www.southwhidbeyrecord.com, click on the Best of Whidbey 2020 link and start voting.

And, for gosh sake, have fun doing it.