Thread: Custume contest judging

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I'm just wondering, how do you get people to vote without being partial to their friends/family etc. We have a mix of adults and kids at our party, and I've tried doing the contest as a whole, and separating adults and kids, but I still have the problem of parents voting for their kids when they are clearly not the best costume. Short of judging everything myself (which I have done some years) how do you get people to be honest and vote for the best costume, not just the person they like best??

I have tried nominating 3 or 4 for each category, then let everyone vote. When I've let the whole group vote though, people must be being honest because it usually a clear winner by a lot of votes.

I usually pick one person and we confer and decide pretty unilaterally. I dont want to take up the time to have a vote, and you can usually tell right away who put in effort and should be in consideration. It is getting harder each year though, for the Wonderland theme people were AWESOME - http://www.heatherscreativelife.com/...-costumes.html

I pick a group of people that donot come in costume and have them decide on the costumes. This way I cannot be accused of being paritial to anyone. I have ben doing this for 10 years and it works great. Usually the same group each year, but it gives them some involvement.

I print out a nice little ballot with the 4 specific categories - ours are Best Overall, Sexiest, Scariest and Most Unique. Then have a set time they must vote by and put them all in the bucket. Then I just count up the ballots....usually people are pretty honest and it's a clear winner.

this is one of the few reason why Spookyone and I dont do it. We feel its unfair to give a prize to someone we know and may make other upset. I know its fun to do it, but it can be pain in the butt.

I pass out voting slips and every person gets to vote. There are always those that will vote for their kids even if they are not very good. I try to politely instill in people to vote for the best costume that they honestly think is the best, and nine out of 10 that come will do this anyways. The main thing is having fun.

What I've found is best would is to use a sound level meter. You can find them on ebay as low at $10.

one person announces, one person records volume. you can run thru people pretty quickly, and then do the top few for a smaller vote...

It also comes in handy when the police come for being to loud, and you can show him that your not. ;-)

(this doesn;t work for me. my sound system is INSANELY LOUD)

I have 3 different categories and let people vote with ballots. Not everyone dresses up so I never see much favortism. Its usually honest.

I think I just need more honest guests, lol! One year, my brother (the same brother who goes inside and watches t.v. during my party) wrote down his daughter's name on the ballot without even going outside to look at the rest of the contestants, Ugh!