Is the winner determined solely on votes or will judges take a look at the top entries (say top 10 entries or so) and then choose a winner?
Just curious as the rules say “Winners will be selected by one or more qualified judges determined by BHD in its sole discretion. The judge(s) will select one (1) winner based on the participant with the highest score.” Usually when there is judging it’s not entirely based on votes – that the judges also have a say.
There’s a lot of great entries – GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!

We decided to take out the judge out to make the contest fair to the participants tht have worked so hard alrady to promote their shoes. I didn’t think it would be fair in the end to have someone judge their entry just base on the look of the shoe.

Thanks for the response Krissy!
I have another question: some entries already had votes prior to the voting period (April 25th – May 1st). Are those included in the vote tabulation since they were cast before voting actually began?
Thanks again!

Yes they are still included, the reason why we closed submission and are just accepting votes was to prevent someone submitting on the last day and winning. We thought we would give everyone the same amount of time. Otherwise we could have had a scenario where someone entered a shoe the day of the winner being announced, blasted it out to all their friends and won. We didnt think that would be fair.

I was a voter in this contest, not a participant. I have heard concerns that there were Americans in the contest and that it was only open to Canadians. There is also rumor that some of the top entries used dishonest methods to win. Will you be checking to make sure that the votes cast are from authentic voters and not voting machines?

There have been some Americans that have entered, however the winner of the grandprize has to be a Canadian resident. We will require a passport to book te trip, so we will be able to confirm. I have heard of those rumors as well, and I will make sure that the votes are authentic and not voting machines. Thank you for sharing this info, and thank you for voting !

As Diane said – many people were getting votes prior to the voting stage. The rules said voting started on a certain date, yet people could vote before that date. I think she was asking if the votes people got before April 25th counted?

I know one person waited to ask for votes for when the voting stage started, but she was shocked to see so many already had votes before the 25th.

Shouldn’t the votes that were gotten before the 25th be removed to be more fair?

I thought voting stopped on April 30th, why are we still voting?

Yes Lori, that’s what I was referring to when I asked about the voting phase.

I waited to enter my photo at the end of the contest since the voting period was supposed to be starting the 24th THEN I started my campaign for votes through email, facebook and twitter.

Yes people were getting votes beforehand, the voting was always enabled. The reason why the rules stated that the voting was for a certain period was to make sure someone didn’t enter on the last day of the contest and win. However, it was always possible to get votes on your shoes through the whole contest. The votes do count. Why should the votes be removed, if it was always enabled, people have been voting on everyone’s shoes prior to that, I have friends who have been voting on all the shoes since the start of the contest.

The reason is – the rules stated voting starts on the 25th. If voting started on the first day of entry, then the rules should have reflected that. Most people do read the rules and follow them.
Your rules stated the following

“Submissions will no longer be accepted after April 25th. Voting will take place from April 25th – April 30th, 2010.”

To anyone who reads that, it means DO NOT VOTE UNTIL April 25.

So if it clearly states to start voting on the 25th, how is it fair that votes gained before that should count?

Your rules should have stated that one could vote right from the beginning of the contest.

I consider it cheating to vote before the date that the rules state.

It’s quite unusual to see a contest sponsor say something completely different than what is written in their own rules…..

Lori I really appreciate your concern, but I don’t believe this is how it went down. Every week, once a week we posted all the lasted shoes in a note on FB and asked people to vote and submit their shoes. I did the same thing on the twitter account as well. So I was promoting voting before the voting period. We simply did not want anymore submissions after that date.

Hi Krissy,, I am one of the entries, and the only confusion i have is will the grand prize winner be chosen from votes, and also, by the write up of their story etc, or strikely first is first, etc..thanks, I was hoping to get out of my red neck town, and prance around with my heels in a far away country .lol

tell me there is still hope..

The grand prize winner will be chosen based on the highest average of votes. This post explains how it was calculated and why it was done this way. Thank you for entering the contest.

I loved the contest, I like how it promoted female artists. I think that you did a great job. I am not one of the chosen winners but believe everyone should be happy with the standings, the 2 top contestants seemed to be constant with their votes throughout the competition and many did not start to grow until the date the voting started. I hate when there are sore losers who have to rain on others parades and by that I mean the contestants and those who have created the contest.

thanks for a great contest. keep up the good work

I am not a sore loser! I didn’t even enter the contest! I was just trying to clarify the rules.

I am disappointed that Americans entered a Canada only contest, and one is a second place winner….

And one of those posted around the net telling others to downvote the entries. So unethical of them.

Thank you D

Thank you for the compliments Courtney ! I am glad you loved the contest.

WOW..Congrats to everyone. Those are some nice heels.. some hotter then others.. LOL

Looks like Danielle G deserves a big hand. Congrats

Did you ever confirm that all of the votes were authentic?

Yes they were all confirmed, they were all IP based and one vote per household.