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Technical Details & Architecture

Polity is designed to provide open, independently auditable transparency for public-interest civic campaigns.

01. Transparent Treasury & Public Auditability

Polity accepts standard payment methods (Credit Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay) securely processed through Stripe.

Every contribution processed through Stripe is recorded directly to the campaign’s public ledger. As funds settle and billboard flights are booked, all inflows, campaign reserves, and media vendor disbursements are documented with verifiable reference IDs (receipt numbers, invoice IDs, and transaction records) so anyone can verify how every dollar is spent.

02. One-Person, One-Voice Voting & Ranked-Choice Consensus

To prevent anyone from purchasing outsized influence, Polity strictly enforces a 1-person, 1-voice mechanism. By routing contributions through standard payment gateways, we utilize payment verification and anti-fraud safeguards to confirm unique participants while preserving strict privacy. Regardless of whether a supporter contributes $10 or $1,000, each verified participant receives exactly one Voting Right and one Submission Right.

Elections are decided using a Partial Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) algorithm. In traditional plurality ("first-past-the-post") voting, participants can only choose a single option. When multiple compelling designs share a similar message or artistic direction, they split the vote (the "spoiler effect"), frequently allowing an unpopular or polarizing candidate to win with a narrow plurality. Instant Runoff Voting eliminates this failure mode by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference (#1, #2, #3, etc.).

Why Partial Ranking?

Standard ranked-choice elections sometimes mandate that voters rank every single candidate on the ballot. However, for campaigns that attract a large number of submissions, forcing a complete ranking can be burdensome. Polity solves this with Partial Ranking: voters have complete agency to rank only the designs they genuinely support (minimum of 1). You can rank your top 2, top 5, or all candidates.

Active vs. Exhausted Ballots: If a participant only ranks a single candidate and that candidate is eliminated in an early round due to low community support, that ballot has no further preferences to transfer to and becomes "exhausted" (inactive). To ensure your voice continues to shape the final rounds, we strongly encourage ranking at least your top 3 to 5 preferred designs!

The Step-by-Step IRV Tallying Process

  1. Round 1 (First-Preference Tally): The system counts the #1 ranked choice on every active ballot cast by verified participants.
  2. Consensus Check (>50% Majority): If any candidate receives more than 50% of active ballots, that candidate is immediately declared the elected consensus winner.
  3. Lowest-Candidate Elimination: If no candidate hits the >50% majority threshold, the design with the lowest vote count across active ballots is eliminated from the race.
  4. Algorithmic Vote Transfer: Ballots that were allocated to the eliminated candidate are automatically reallocated to each voter's next-preferred active candidate. If a ballot has no remaining active choices listed, it becomes exhausted.
  5. Sequential Convergence: The algorithm updates the active ballot count, recalculates majority thresholds, and repeats the elimination and transfer cycle round-by-round until a candidate crosses 50% or stands as the final remaining choice.

03. Financial Transparency: Fees & Budget

When a contribution is made, the funds are strictly allocated according to the following protocol rules:

  • Billboard Media: The base contribution you select goes strictly toward purchasing digital billboard screen time. This is the only figure used to calculate the campaign's progress.
  • Payment Processing (At Checkout): Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for credit cards. We pass this cost through directly as a distinct line item to ensure it does not dilute the media buy.
  • Platform Operations (At Checkout): A 7% + $0.50 fee is added to subsidize servers, database hosting, and protect against processing losses in the event a campaign fails and refunds are issued.

If the campaign fails to hit its minimum threshold, you are automatically refunded 100% of your contribution (Polity absorbs the Stripe processing loss).

04. Independent Ballot Auditing & Voter Privacy

Polity strictly separates financial records from voting ballots to guarantee voter privacy. While campaign funding is completely transparent on the public ledger, your ballot is anonymous—preventing anyone from linking donation amounts or personal identities to how someone voted:

  • Financial Ledger (/ledger): Strictly records capital movements—fiat Stripe contributions, campaign reservations, vendor disbursements, and automated backer refunds.
  • Anonymous Voting Records: Stores voter preference rankings separately from payment data using one-way pseudonyms. This prevents correlating donation amounts or donor names with candidate choices.

How Can Anyone Independently Audit the Vote?

Every campaign page provides direct Export Manifest (.CSV) and Export Raw Ballots (.JSON) downloads. Each record includes the unique ballot ID, an anonymized voter ID, timestamp, and ordered preferences. Any supporter, journalist, or civic auditor can run their own script or spreadsheet formulas over the raw manifest to independently verify that our Ranked-Choice Voting algorithm elected the authentic consensus winner down to the single ballot.

05. Community-Engaged Creative Direction

Any contributor with a Submission Right can submit a design proposal that matches the exact physical specifications of the targeted digital billboard inventory.

06. Pre-Voting Excess vs. Post-Voting Rollover (Seasons)

Campaign funding operates in two clear stages:

  1. Before Voting Locks (Phase 1): If a campaign raises funds in excess of its Minimum Launch Target (MLT) before voting begins, all extra funds directly purchase additional screen time and views for the inaugural flight.
  2. After Voting & During Live Flights: Contributions received after voting begins roll forward into the campaign treasury to fund the next creative cycle (Season 2).

How the Seasonal Refresh Works

Displaying a single static artwork for months leads to message fatigue and prevents the community from responding to breaking news, regulatory developments, or cultural shifts. Once an active media flight concludes, the campaign initiates a Seasonal Refresh:

  • Dedicated 7-Day Design Window: Unlike Season 1 (where submissions run concurrently with the 30-day crowdfunding drive), Season 2 opens a dedicated 7-day portal exclusively for community members to submit fresh design proposals.
  • Ranked-Choice Community Election: All eligible contributors—from the original funding drive and any late contributors—cast their ranked ballots to elect the new consensus creative.
  • Immediate Deployment: Because the media buy is already pre-funded in the campaign treasury from rollover contributions, the newly elected artwork is sent directly to the vendor for scheduling without requiring a new 30-day crowdfunding campaign.