Voting for the 2016 Hugo Awards, 2016 John W. Campbell Award, and 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards opened on May 15, 2016. Members of the 2016 World Science Fiction Convention (MidAmeriCon II) may vote until 23:59 Pacific Daylight Time on July 31, 2016 using the online ballot available at the 2016 Hugo Awards Voting web page, or by using the paper ballot that will be sent to members and can be downloaded from the MidAmeriCon II web site. Persons who join MidAmeriCon II by July 31, 2016 (the close of voting) are eligible to vote. Members who registered an e-mail address with the 2016 Worldcon will receive instructions including a Personal Identification Number (PIN) for accessing the online ballot.
Finalists for the 2016 Hugo Awards and 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards were selected by nominations received by more than 4,000 members of the 2015, 2016, and 2017 Worldcons. Only Attending, Young Adult, and Supporting members of the 2016 Worldcon can vote on the final ballot. The ballot includes the finalists for the Hugo Awards and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (sponsored by the publisher of Analog). The Campbell is not a Hugo Award but is administered and voted upon using the same system as the Hugo Awards and is presented at the Hugo Awards ceremony.
The Hugo Awards Final Ballot uses the “Instant Runoff Voting” (IRV) system. Voters rank their preferences among the nominated works. They 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. For more information about how the voting system works, see this page.
A choice of “No Award” is always listed in each category. If this option wins, no Hugo Award is presented in that category for that year.
MidAmeriCon II is preparing a “Hugo Voter Packet.” This is 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. MidAmeriCon II expects to release the Hugo Voter Packet in late May 2016. The Hugo Voter Packets (both for the 2016 and 1941 Awards) will be available from the 2016 Hugo Awards Voting web page.
The results of the 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards will be announced on Thursday, August 18, 2016 during the Retro-Hugo Swing Dance/Ceremony at MidAmeriCon II in Kansas City, Missouri. The results of the 2016 Hugo Awards will be announced at a ceremony on the evening of Saturday, August 20, 2016 at MidAmeriCon II. The ceremony is planned to be shown live on streaming video and lower-bandwidth 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.