Judging
All eligible recordings released between January 1 and December 31 of each year and submitted to the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts are included in the preliminary balloting. The ballot is sent out to current paid HARA Membership. Once voting is completed, an accounting firm tabulates the votes and the five recordings with the most votes in each category proceed to the final ballot.
The same process is done for the Final Ballot.
The HARA Board of Governors do NOT determine the winners, the current paid HARA Membership determines the winners via online voting.
The Adjudicated Categories – Graphics, Liner Notes, the 2 Engineering Awards, Haku Mele, Hawaiian Language Performance, and International Album categories are judged by graphic artists, writers, engineers, Hawaiian language and music specialists.
The preliminary and final ballot votes are conducted online at Election Runner, the Adjudicated Categories, the Favorite Entertainer vote is also conducted online, and the award recipients are announced at the awards.
The public votes for the Favorite Entertainer of the Year. The vote for the Favorite Entertainer is conducted at the HARA website. Artists must have released an album in the eligibility year which appears on the final ballot, be residents of Hawai`i, and living within the eligibility year. Artists on compilations and anthologies are not eligible.
