<h1>Intentions</h1>
<ul>
<li>Create a RESTful voting <span class="caps">API</span></li>
<li>The election results should be fully open and transparent</li>
<li>However, the <span class="caps">API</span> will not return actual results until the voting is finished – the purpose being to prevent people from using current results to bias ongoing voting.</li>
<li>Client provides an identity string when a user votes</li>
<li><span class="caps">API</span> trusts the client’s identity string</li>
<li>Client doesn’t have to worry about details of how to count a ballot. It only passes it along.</li>
</ul>
<p>To create an election, you must specify</p>
<ul>
<li>a voting system</li>
<li>candidates for the election</li>
<li>when the voting starts</li>
<li>when the voting ends</li>
<li>some sort of credentials so that only the creator of the election can modify the election settings<br />
Note: Once in progress, the creator of an election cannot shut it down. It must run its course.</li>
</ul>
<p>A voting system specifies:</p>
<ul>
<li>The form of the ballot</li>
<li>The tallying method</li>
</ul>
<p>Ballot forms:</p>
<ul>
<li>Binary ballot (start here)</li>
<li>Ranked ballot</li>
<li>Range ballot</li>
</ul>
<p>Tallying methods:</p>
<ul>
<li>Single winner
<ul>
<li>Plurality (start here)</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Multiple-winner
<ul>
<li>Proportional representation</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<h2>RESTful <span class="caps">API</span></h2>
<h3>Elections</h3>
<h4>List the elections</h4>
<p><span class="caps">GET</span> /elections</p>
<h4>Create an election</h4>
<p><span class="caps">POST</span> /elections</p>
<p>Returns:</p>
<ul>
<li>owner token</li>
<li>polling place token</li>
</ul>
<h4>View an election</h4>
<p><span class="caps">GET</span> /elections/101</p>
<h4>Modify an election</h4>
<p><span class="caps">PUT</span> /elections/101</p>
<h4>Delete an election</h4>
<p><span class="caps">DELETE</span> /election/101</p>
<h3>Candidates</h3>
<h4>List the candidates</h4>
<p><span class="caps">GET</span> /elections/101/candidates</p>
<h4>Create a candidate</h4>
<p><span class="caps">POST</span> /elections/101/candidates</p>
<h4>View a candidate</h4>
<p><span class="caps">GET</span> /elections/101/candidates</p>
<h4>Modify a candidate</h4>
<p><span class="caps">PUT</span> /elections/101/candidates</p>
<h4>Delete a candidate</h4>
<p><span class="caps">DELETE</span> /election/101/candidates</p>
<h3>Votes</h3>
<h4>List the votes</h4>
<p><span class="caps">GET</span> /elections/101/votes</p>
<h4>Create a vote</h4>
<p><span class="caps">POST</span> /elections/101/votes</p>
<h4>View a vote</h4>
<p><span class="caps">GET</span> /elections/101/votes</p>
<h4>Modify a vote</h4>
<p><span class="caps">PUT</span> /elections/101/votes</p>
<h4>Delete a vote</h4>
<p><span class="caps">DELETE</span> /election/101/votes</p>
<h1>Misc</h1>
<h2>Voting vs. rating systems</h2>
<ul>
<li>Voting systems are designed to transform a group’s preferences into a N winners, where N is fixed in advance. There are many voting systems because there is no one transformation that is “correct” for all situations according to all reasonable criteria (see Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem).</li>
<li>Rating system do not imply how many “winners” (i.e. 5 star ratings) will occur. They do not have to ensure that a predetermined number of rated items percolate to the top.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Future</h2>
<ul>
<li>Nick said that he social web could benefit from having API’s to provide rating services.</li>
</ul>
<li>
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