E-Voter

A civic engagement web platform where users watch legislative video content, cast yes/no votes, and see how their state voted compared to the rest of the country.

Features

• Video library — Browse legislative debates and hearings. Each card shows the current yes/no vote split at a glance.
• ZIP-aware voting — Users enter their ZIP code before voting. The app resolves it to a state via the Zippopotam.us API and stores it for future visits.
• Live results — After submitting a vote, the page instantly replaces the voting form with a yes/no progress bar showing updated totals.
• National analytics — A dedicated results page aggregates all votes by state, showing each state's split in a sortable table with progress bars.
• Feedback — Users can submit open-ended feedback at any time.
• Auto-seeding — The database seeds itself with sample videos on first launch; no manual SQL required.

Screenshots

Homepage

Video Library

National Results

Feedback

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	Node.js, Sails.js v1.5
Frontend	EJS templates, Bootstrap 5
Database	sails-disk
HTTP Client	Axios
Build	Grunt.js

Getting Started

Demo

Demo available here: Demo

Prerequisites

• Node.js v22.13+

Installation

git clone https://github.com/crypticwaffles/E-Voter.git
cd E-Voter
npm install
node app.js

The app starts at http://localhost:1337/. On first launch, Sails runs migrations and seeds the database with 3 sample videos automatically.

Application Structure

api/
  controllers/
    VideoController.js    # List videos with vote tallies; serve play page
    VoteController.js     # Submit votes; aggregate results by state
    LocationController.js # ZIP code lookup + persistence
    FeedbackController.js # User feedback submission
  models/
    Video.js              # title, url
    Vote.js               # VideoId, zipId, choice (boolean)
    Location.js           # zip, state, county
    Feedback.js           # message
config/
  routes.js               # URL → controller/view mapping
  bootstrap.js            # Database seeder (runs on lift)
  datastores.js           # Database adapter config (sails-disk)
views/
  layouts/layout.ejs      # Shared navbar and page shell
  pages/
    homepage.ejs
    videoList.ejs         # Video cards with live vote splits
    videoPlay.ejs         # Video player, ZIP input, voting, inline results
    analytics.ejs         # National results — overall totals + state breakdown
    feedback.ejs

API Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
GET	/	Homepage
GET	/video/list	Video library with vote tallies
GET	/video/play/:id	Video player and voting UI
POST	/vote	Submit a vote; returns { yesVotes, noVotes }
GET	/analytics	National results aggregated by state
GET	/api/location?zip=	Resolve ZIP → city/state and persist
GET	/feedback	Feedback page
POST	/feedback	Submit feedback