To whom shall I give my vote?

I don’t mean in the presidential election. That decision is easy, at least for me.

I’m referring to the ballot currently displayed before me on my computer screen, the list of finalists for the 2016 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards. The categories include national awards, such as Outstanding Baker, Outstanding Wine Program, Outstanding Restaurant and Outstanding Chef. There are also opportunities for recognition in pastry; bar program; wine, beer or spirits professional; and Rising Star Chef of the Year, for a young cook 30 years of age or younger.

But it’s the Best Chef awards that garner the most attention. The awards program divvies the country up into 10 regions — New York City gets its own category — with five chef finalists in each region.

Florida is part of the South region, which also includes Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Puerto Rico and Louisiana. Which also includes New Orleans. Which historically dominates the category and, more times than not, is where the winning chef works. This year, three of the five finalists represent New Orleans restaurants. The other two are from Oxford, Miss., and San Juan.

Although Central Florida had four chefs on the semifinalists ballot, none made it to the finals. None has ever made it to the finals. And all were certainly able: Scott Hunnel of Victoria & Albert’s; Kathleen Blake of the Rusty Spoon; and James and Julie Petrakis, the Ravenous Pig, nominated as one.

Here’s the thing about the nomination and voting process. The judges are people like me, food and restaurant critics and journalists from throughout the country. Each year, we’re called upon to nominate worthy chefs from our region. We don’t just throw out names, we’re asked for specifics and details and to make an argument as to why our nominees should be put forward for the prestigious award.

The awards committee takes our nominations under consideration and presents a semifinalists ballot that includes 20 or so names in each of the categories or regions. We are allowed to vote for up to five nominees in any of the categories we’d like, as long as we pledge only to vote for chefs whose food we have eaten and for restaurants where we have dined.

And that’s where things start going wrong for Central Florida chefs. The other judges — food journalists — from the region are much more likely to venture to New Orleans than to Orlando. It’s a major flaw in the system, because one does not vote necessarily for the “best” of the five, one votes for the best of the five that he or she has experienced.

For example, I’m pleased for the chance to place my vote for Andrew Zimmerman of Chicago’s Sepia in the Great Lakes category. I’ve had a truly wonderful meal there. But I’ve not eaten at any of the other four nominees’ restaurants, all of which, by the way, are also in Chicago, which probably ticks off chefs in other Illinois cities as well as in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, who also compete in that category.

And I’m eager to vote for New York’s Jody Williams, whose Buvette in the West Village is one of the few restaurants in the city I return to again and again. I even sought out her newly opened Buvette in the Pigalle district of Paris last June. But is she a better chef than fellow nominee Anita Lo of Annisa? Can’t say; I haven’t eaten at Annisa. But I’m still allowed to place my vote for the chef whose food I have eaten.

But my bigger dilemma is back here at “home.” I have a better first-hand knowledge of the nominees in the South region and have recently dined at two of the finalists’ restaurants. One, Toups’ Meatery, is a real head scratcher. As you might expect from the name, it features house-made charcuterie and such. Good? Yes, but hardly the sort of thing you think about for recognition of a cook in a starring role.

And at another, Brennan’s, I had such a miserable dining experience last September that I made a point of saying so to a manager as I was leaving, something I rarely do on site.

I would easily place any of our semifinalists — and a few others I wasn’t successful at getting on the ballot — over either of them, but I don’t have that option. There are not write-ins for James Beard Awards.

But am I to choose the least objectionable candidate for Best Chef: South just because it’s my region?

That seems to be the wrong decision for an already terribly flawed process.

The winners will be announced at a black-tie gala in Chicago on May 2. When the winner of the South region is announced, I will listen with disinterest and will know that I had nothing to do with the selection.