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.