Advocate Magazine Best of Rules

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.

1. Eligibility: The Best Of Contest is open only to contestants who login and/or signup at the online contest page and who are 18 years of age or older as of the date of entry. You must provide your email address at minimum for your entry to count. We will save your email address and add to our regular email list. You may unsubscribe from this list at any time. The Best Of Contest is void where prohibited by law. The Best Of Contest is subject to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

2. Agreement to Rules: By participating, you agree to be fully conditionally bound by these Rules, and you represent and warrant that you meet the eligibility requirements set forth herein. In addition, you agree to accept the decisions of Advocate Magazine as final and binding as it relates to the contest. You also agree to having your email address added to the Advocate email list.

3. Entries: Entries have been selected by Advocate staff; please forward additional candidates for future categories to mmeals@advocatemag.com

4. How to Vote: Voting must be done only through the voting portal on each of our neighborhood websites. Each voter is only allowed to vote one time per day in each category. You may vote in more than one neighborhood. You must use the online form and portal and provide your email address in order for your vote to count. If Advocate Magazine determines that any vote (s) are submitted using fraudulent methods or by circumventing the rules, your vote and any duplicate votes will be removed at the discretion of Advocate Magazine. Votes sent by email or to our Facebook page are not complete and do not count as a vote.

5. How Winners are Chosen: Our Advocate Magazine staff will review all public voting using our Woobox© software, count votes, and select winners based on who has the most votes per category. There will be 1 winner in each category in each neighborhood. There will also be a runner-up and 3^rd place announced. Winners will be added to the Advocate Best Of List for the particular year, will receive a counter card announcing that they have been selected as the Best Of in their particular category, and are able to announce their selection/winning in any way they deem appropriate, provided that whatever promotion the winner uses in no way indicates Advocate is endorsing the business as anything other than a winner of the Best Of contest for that neighborhood. All nominees and winners may request an Advocate “Best Of” sticker decal for placement in their storefront should they choose.

6. Notification: Entries/Nominees and winners of the Best Of Contest will be notified via email and/or phone call. Advocate Magazine will have no liability for a winner or entry’s failure to receive notices of their selection due to spam, junk e-mail or other security settings or for entry’s provision of incorrect or otherwise non-functioning contact information. If the winner or entry cannot be reached after reasonable efforts have been exerted or if he/she is found to be ineligible, or if he/she does not comply with these Contest Rules, such entry/winner will be disqualified and an alternate entry/winner may be selected

7. Rights Granted By You (the entry/nominee): By virtue of being an entry or nominee in the Best Of Contest, you understand that Advocate Magazine, anyone acting on behalf of Advocate Magazine will have the right, where permitted by law, without further notice, review or consent to print, publish, broadcast, distribute, and use in any media now known or hereafter in perpetuity, your entry, including, without limitation, the entry and winner’s name, portrait, picture, voice, likeness, image or statements about the Contest, and biographical information as news, publicity or information and for trade, advertising, public relations, and promotional purposes without any compensation.

8. Rights to Work: By accepting your nomination as an entry or winner in the Best Of Contest, you represent and warrant that your entry is your original work and does not include third party without permission and that it will not infringe on the rights of any third party or entity. In addition, you have obtained all rights, licenses, permissions and consents necessary to participate in the contest as an official Entry.

9. Terms: Advocate Magazine reserves the right, in its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest should (in its sole discretion) a virus, bugs, non-authorized human intervention, fraud or other causes beyond its control corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, or proper conduct of the Contest. In such case, Advocate Magazine may select winners from all eligible entries received prior to and/or after (if appropriate) the action taken by Advocate Magazine. Advocate Magazine reserves the right at hits sole discretion to disqualify any individual who tampers or attempts to tamper with the voting process or the operation of the Contest or website or violates these Terms & Conditions.If this contest includes a public voting period, Advocate Magazine has the right, in its sole discretion, to maintain the integrity of the Contest, to void votes for any reason, including, but not limited to; multiple votes from the same user from different IP addresses; multiple votes from the same computer in excess of that allowed by contest rules; fraudulent votes; or the use of bots, macros or scripts or other technical means for voting.Any attempt by an entrant or voter to deliberately damage our website or undermine the legitimate operation of the contest may be a violation of criminal and civil laws and should such an attempt be made, Advocate Magazine reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law.
10. Limitation of Liability: By voting and participating as an entrant or winner, you agree to release and hold harmless Advocate Magazine, and its employees, representatives, and owners from any liability, illness, injury, death, loss, litigation, claim or damage that may occur, directly or indirectly, whether caused by negligence or not, from (i) such entrant’s or voter’s participation in the contest, (ii) technical failures of any kind, including but not limited to the malfunctioning of any computer, cable, network, hardware or software; (iii) the unavailability or inaccessibility of any transmissions or telephone or Internet service; (iv) unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry process or the Contest; (v) electronic or human error which may occur in the administration of the Contest, the processing of entries, and the selection of winners.
11. Governing Law: All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of all these official rules or the rights and obligations of entrants, voters or sponsors in connection with the Contest shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of Texas without giving effect to any choice of law of conflict of law rules or provisions that would cause the application of any other state’s laws.

This Advocate Magazine Best Of Contest is in no way, sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook.