The Heisman vote is actually rather simple. The nation is split into six sections (Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, South, Midwest, Southwest, Far West), each consisting of 145 media voters culled from the print, radio and television ranks. Also, every past Heisman winner casts a vote as well.

Each elector casts a ballot listing his top three choices, with the top choice receiving three points, the second receiving two and the third receiving one. This method was adopted with the idea of eliminating regional favoritism, and the player receiving the higest number of points across all six sections is the winner.