Voting Deadlines

Hugo Award Nominations Close March 31

~ Kevin

Nominations for the 2016 Hugo Awards, John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author, and 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards close at 23:59 Pacific Standard Time at the end of the day on Thursday, March 31, 2016. (That’s 06:59 GMT/UTC on April 1, 2016.) Anyone who was or is a member of the 2015, 2016, or 2017 World Science Fiction Conventions as of the end of January 2016 may nominate. Members may nominate up to five works in each category. Note that you can nominate as little as one work in one category. It is not necessary to fill out every space or to nominate in every category.

After nominations close, the Hugo Award Administrators will tally nominations, confirm eligibility, and begin contacting potential finalists. Under the rules of the World Science Fiction Society, every potential finalist must be given an opportunity to decline nomination to the shortlist. Once this process is complete, the current Worldcon, MidAmeriCon II, will announce the shortlist of finalists for each category. It typically takes several weeks to complete the eligibility and contact process. MidAmeriCon II said in a post on Twitter that the 2016 Hugo Awards shortlist will be announced on April 26. Voting on the final ballot will open May 15 May and close July 31.

Note that the people/works who appear on the final ballot are “finalists.” Historically the term “nominees” was used, but this term was officially deprecated by the World Science Fiction Society in favor of “finalist” in a change ratified in 2015. There appear to be some people who have been told by individual members that they’ve received one or more nomination votes in the nomination process, and have started billing themselves as “Hugo Award Nominees.” The term “Hugo Award Nominee” has no official meaning, and it does not mean that the work or person will be on the final Hugo Award ballot.

Voting for 2015 Hugo Awards Ends July 31

~ Kevin ~ 1 Comment

Voting for the 2015 Hugo Awards closes on July 31, 2015 at 23:59 Pacific Standard Time (UTC -7). We recommend that if you want to vote, you do not put it off until the last minute or even the last day, as we anticipate a heavy load on the voting servers that day. Cast your vote at the 2015 Hugo Voting Page at this year’s Worldcon’s web site.

You can cast your vote and then return to it and change any of your choices up until the voting deadline. You do not need to explicitly finalize your ballot, as the voting system will automatically close all ballots as of the deadline.

You must be a supporting or attending (including military and young adult) member of Sasquan, the 2015 Worldcon, in order to vote. Memberships are not processed automatically, so if you want to vote and are not yet a member, 2015 Worldcon Membership Registration sooner, not later, to allow enough time for Sasquan to process your membership and send you your voting credentials.

The results of the 2015 Hugo Awards will be announced at the 2015 Hugo Awards Ceremony on the evening of Saturday, August 22 at the Worldcon in Spokane. All attending members of Sasquan may attend (subject to hall capacity). There is no separate ticking for the Hugo Awards ceremony, and seating is limited to the 2700 seats in the INB Performing Arts Center. Sasquan will also provide live video streaming of the Hugo Awards Ceremony, and The Hugo Awards web site will provide text-only coverage via CoverItLive (suitable for lower-bandwidth connections).

Voting Open for 2015 Hugo Awards

~ Kevin ~ 8 Comments

Voting for the 2015 Hugo Awards opened on May 1, 2015. Members of the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention (Sasquan) may vote until July 31, 2015 using the Online Hugo Awards Final Ballot or by using the paper ballot that will be sent to all members. Members who join Sasquan by July 31, 2015 (the close of voting) are eligible to vote. Members who registered an e-mail address with the 2015 Worldcon will receive instructions including a Personal Identification Number (PIN) for accessing the online ballot.

Finalists for the 2015 Hugo Award were selected by nominations received by the members of the 2014, 2015, and 2016 Worldcons. Only members of the 2015 Worldcon can vote on the final ballot. The ballot includes the finalists for the Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (sponsored by the publisher of Analog), which is not a Hugo Award but is administered and voted upon by the same system as the Hugo Award and is presented at the Hugo Award ceremony.

The Final Hugo Award ballot uses the “Instant Runoff Voting” (IRV) system. Voters rank their preferences among the nominated works (including “No Award,” which is always listed in each category; if it wins, no Hugo Award is presented in that category that year). Voters mark the work they want to win with a 1, the work they would prefer if their first choice was not on the ballot with a 2, and so forth. Voters need not rank all choices.

Sasquan is preparing the “Hugo Voter Packet,” a collection of shortlisted works or excepts of such works provided by the publishers and rights-holders to allow the voters to be better informed about their choices. Sasquan expects to release the Hugo Voter Packet in late May 2015. In addition, many publishers, authors, and artists have made full versions of their nominated works available on their websites.

The results of the 2015 Hugo Awards will be announced at a ceremony on August 22, 2015 at Sasquan in Spokane, Washington. The ceremony is planned to be shown live on streaming video and a text-only coverage of the event will be provided through the Hugo Awards web site. Details of the live streaming and text-based coverage will be announced in August.

Hugo Voting Closes at End of July

~ Kevin

Voting for the 2014 Hugo Awards and 1939 Retrospective Hugo Awards closes at 23:59 Pacific Daylight Time Thursday 31 July 2014 (07:59 1 August 2014 British Summer Time). If you are a member of the 2014 Worldcon, Loncon 3, you have until then to cast your ballot for the Hugo Awards. See the Loncon 3 Hugo Awards page for more information about voting.

Direct any questions about 2014 Hugo Award voting directly to this year’s Worldcon, not the Hugo Awards web site. The Hugo Awards web site does not administer the voting for the Hugo Awards, so if you write to us, we’ll only forward your message on to Loncon 3.

Hugo Voting Opens

~ Kevin ~ 1 Comment

Online voting for the 2014 Hugo Awards and the 1939 Retrospective Hugo Awards is now open. You can vote online or download a paper ballot and mail it to Loncon 3.

The deadline for voting is 1 August 2014 at 00:00 PDT (that is, the end of the day Pacific Daylight Time on 31 July; note that this is 07:00 GMT/UTC on 1 August). The online voting pages will close at that time, and any paper ballots mailed in will need to also have been received by then.

Only attending, supporting, and young adult members of Loncon 3, the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention, are eligible to vote on the final ballots for the 2014 and 1939 Awards. You do not have to attend Worldcon to vote; you only need to be a member. You can join Loncon 3 at their membership page.

Loncon 3 will remind voters of their Loncon 3 Membership Numbers and Hugo PINs, and you can request your PIN through the voting web page as well. You can change your votes right up to the deadline; however, Loncon 3 recommends that you not wait until the last moment, due to anticipated heavy traffic on the voting web site during the final hours of the voting.

The Hugo Awards voting is conducted by Loncon 3. Direct any questions about the 2014 and 1939 Awards to the hugoadmin@loncon3.org. Please do not submit questions about the administration of the awards to us here at TheHugoAwards.org, because this will result in a delay while we forward the questions to this year’s Administrators.

2014 Hugo Nominations Closed

~ Kevin

Nominations for the 2014 Hugo Awards are now closed. The final Hugo Award ballot will be announced later this month. We will publish details of exactly when the final ballot will be announced when Loncon 3, the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention, finalizes arrangements for the announcement.

2014 Hugo Award Nominations Open

~ Kevin ~ 2 Comments

Nominations for the 2014 Hugo Awards, the 2014 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the 1939 Retrospective Hugo Awards are now open. These Awards are being administered by Loncon 3, the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention in London, England. Any person who was or is a member of the 2013, 2014, or 2015 Worldcons as of January 31, 2014 is eligible to nominate for the 2014 Hugo and Campbell Awards and the 1939 Retro-Hugos. (Even if you’re a member of more than one of those three Worldcons, you may only cast one nominating ballot for each set of Awards.) If you are not a member of any of those conventions, you may join Loncon 3, the 2014 Worldcon or Sasquan, the 2015 Worldcon before January 31, 2014 to become eligible.

If you are eligible to nominate, you may cast a nominating ballot through the Loncon 3 Hugo Awards Website. You can also vote by paper mail using the paper ballots distributed in Loncon 3 Progress Report 2. No matter which method you use to vote, Loncon 3 must receive your ballot (postmarks do not count) by Monday, March 31, 2014, 23:59 Pacific Daylight Time (April 1, 07:59 British Summer Time). (Convert to your local time here.)

If you have questions about specific procedures for the 2014 Hugo Awards, address them to the Loncon 3 Hugo Awards Administrators. TheHugoAwards.org cannot answer specific questions about eligibility or procedures for a given election, since each Hugo Award election is administered by that year’s Worldcon.

The PINs required for online voting are in the process of being emailed by Loncon 3 to all eligible members of LoneStarCon 3, Loncon 3, and Sasquan. For PIN queries, please write to Loncon 3 at hugopin@Loncon3.org.

Note: While this is a “nominating ballot,” and we say that you “nominate” people or works for a Hugo Award when you write them on the nominating ballot, only those people or works that appear on the final Hugo Award ballot later in the year are the actual “Hugo Award Nominees.” Merely writing a work in on your nominating ballot does not make that work a “Hugo Award Nominee” unless the work receives enough nominations from other Worldcon members to make the final ballot.

Hugo Award Voting Closed

~ Kevin

Voting for the 2013 Hugo Awards is now closed. The winners will be announced at the Hugo Awards Ceremony at LoneStarCon 3, the 2013 World Science Fiction Convention, on Sunday, September 1, 2013. According to the LoneStarCon 3 web site, the convention is finalizing plans to show the Hugo Awards Ceremony by video streaming and to also provide lower-bandwidth plain-text coverage, with details to be announced in early August. For more information, see the Hugo Awards page at the LoneStarCon 3 web site.