(a) Selection. Five voting judges and one alternate judge will be selected annually by the Secretary of the Interior. Current employees of the Fish and Wildlife Service and their relatives are ineligible to serve as judges for the contest. The judges will be reimbursed for reasonable travel expenses.

(b) Qualifications. The panel of five judges will comprise individuals who have one or more of the following prerequisites: Recognized art credentials, knowledge of the anatomical makeup and the natural habitat of the eligible waterfowl species, an understanding of the wildlife sporting world in which the Duck Stamp is used, an awareness of philately and the role the Duck Stamp plays in stamp collecting, and demonstrated support for the conservation of waterfowl and wetlands through active involvement in the conservation community.

(c) Disqualification. Any contestant who contacts a judge prior to or during the contest will automatically be disqualified from the current year's contest and barred from entering the three contests that come after the current year's contest.

The Federal Duck Stamp Office assigns all eligible entries a number as entries are received. That office displays the entries in numerical order at the contest site.

Entries will be judged on the basis of anatomical accuracy, artistic composition, and suitability for reduction in the production of a stamp.

(a) The day before the judging begins, the judges will be briefed on all aspects of the judging procedures and other details of the competition, and will preview all eligible artwork entered.

(b) Prior to the first round of judging, and prior to the opening of the contest to the public, the judges will spend an additional two hours reviewing the entries.

(c) In the first round of judging, all qualified entries will be shown one at a time to the judges by the Contest Coordinator or a contest staff member. The judges will vote “in” or “out” on each entry; those entries receiving a majority of votes “in” will be eligible for the second round of judging. The remaining entries will be placed on display as a group for public viewing.

(d) Prior to the second round of judging, each judge may select not more than five entries from those eliminated in the first round. Those additional entries selected by the judges will be eligible to be judged in the second round.

(e) Prior to the second round of judging, the entries selected by the judges under the procedures of paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section will be displayed in numerical order in the front of the auditorium.

(f) The technical advisors from the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Postal Service will do a critical analysis of the entries that will be judged in the second round and advise the judges of any serious anatomical problems and/or any serious design problems for the engraver.

(g) In the second round of judging, each entry selected in the first round, plus the additional entries selected by judges per paragraph (d) of this section, will be shown one at a time to the judges by the Contest Coordinator or by a contest staff member. Each judge will vote by indicating a numerical score of one (1), two (2), three (3), four (4), or five (5) for each entry. The scores will be totaled to provide each entry's score. The five entries receiving the five highest scores will be advanced to the third round of judging.

(h) In the third round of judging, the judges will vote on the remaining entries using the same method as in round two, except that they will indicate a numerical score of three (3), four (4), or five (5) for each entry. The Contest Coordinator will tabulate the final votes and present them to the Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who will announce the winning entry as well as the entries that placed second and third.

(i) In case of a tie vote for first, second, or third place in the third round, the judges will vote again on the entries that are tied. The judges will vote using the same method as in round three.

(j) The selection of the winning entry by the judges will be final. Each contestant will be notified of the winning artist and the design. The winning artist will receive a pane of Duck Stamps signed by the Secretary of the Interior at the Federal Duck Stamp Contest the following year. The artists placing first, second, and third will receive a framed commendation from the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.