On March 20, 2014 V for Veg and the Daily News are going to name the Best Vegan Cheesesteak in Philly. Here are THE RULES OF THE CONTEST. Scroll down for the latest VOTE TALLY.



Long story short, you send in your choice for Best Vegan Cheesesteak, plus, if you like, a reason you think it's the best. The first vote each place gets constitutes its nomination, and I will record those and their reasons in full here in updates to this blog post. The 2nd, 3rd, etc. votes just add up for that place, and at midnight on March 11 the top three vote-getters move on to the finals. I will keep the tally up to date as much as possible, but at least every 12 hours.



There are various ways to vote, as the rules specify. You can email me your choice for favorite Vegan Cheesesteak, or you can tweet it with the hashtag #vegancheesesteak, or you can send in the coupon that runs with my V for Veg column, OR you can simply indicate your choice right here, via a comment on this post. It's worth voting, not just because of your sense of civic responsibility, but because one person chosen randomly will win a delicious vegan dinner for two at Sprig & Vine in New Hope.



Although the various ways of voting make it possible to send multiple votes for the same place, why not be a sport and throw one of your 4 possbile votes to your second-favorite? That way we may hear about more places with vegan cheesesteaks. And don't go creating multiple accounts to game this contest - when we pick up on that we'll just throw out all your votes.



Above all, please get out there and have fun, take the opportunity to try different vegan cheesesteaks (if you have no idea where to find one, VegPhilly.com is a good starting point) and make sure you really stand behind your choice as the best in Philadelphia. Hey, it's not stuffing your face with junk food, it's research!



UPDATE 1:45 pm on 2/28 - VALID VOTES



As a reminder, Twitter votes must be from a legit account that was not created expressly for voting in the contest. This was specified at the outset, and we've now had to reject one vote on this basis. Also, as of today, email votes specifying a vote for "Best Vegan Cheesecake" or other non-cheesesteak item will no longer receive a courtesy reply along the lines of "do you mean cheesesteak?" in order to solicit a legitimate vote. If you have the menu item you're voting for wrong, it's not going to count as a vote, and there's enough organizational effort involved in vote tracking without adding more back-and-forth conversations into the mix. Thanks.



UPDATE 2:00 pm on 3/6 - "VEGAN CHEESESTEAK" CRITERIA