# Gathent - Secure Digital Elections & Online Polling Infrastructure
> Military-Grade E-Voting Security, Secret Ballot Anonymity, AES-256 Field Encryption, and HMAC-SHA256 Merkle Audit Chains.

## Overview
Gathent (https://gathent.com) provides end-to-end encrypted infrastructure for group decisions, corporate candidate elections, real-time event polls, and community governance.

## Key Decision Models
- **Elections**: Multi-position candidate elections with position limits, manifestos, allowed voter roll validation, and zero-knowledge receipt verification.
- **Polling**: Instant community polls with flexible choice options, automatic expiration timers, media attachments, and real-time WebSocket breakdown charts.
- **Live Events**: Interactive broadcast event streams with real-time Q&A, live webinar polls, and sub-second vote tallying.
- **Community Elections**: Dedicated voting hubs for neighborhood associations, civic clubs, DAOs, and organizations with member verification.

## Voter Access Controls
- **Public**: Open to all registered users on the platform.
- **Private**: Allowed email list & corporate domain restricted (e.g., @company.com).
- **Followers Only**: Restricted to verified followers of the Decision Owner's community channel.

## Security & Verification Standards
- **Secret Ballot Privacy**: Physical database decoupling between voter identity records (`VoterParticipationRecord`) and encrypted ballot choices (`EncryptedBallot`). Zero user foreign keys on ballot tables.
- **Merkle Audit Receipts**: Cryptographically linked HMAC-SHA256 hash chains. Every vote issues a 16-character verification receipt code (`GATH-RC-XXXX-XXXX`).
- **AES-256 Field Encryption**: Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and identity documents encrypted at rest with FIPS 140-2 compliant AES-256 ciphers.
- **Immutable Audit Trails**: Complete SOC 2 Type II and NIST SP 800-92 compliant administrative action logging.

## Developer Integrations & SDKs
- **n8n Community Node**: `npm install n8n-nodes-gathent` (Webhooks: `election.created`, `vote.cast`, `election.ended`).
- **TypeScript Client**: `npm install @bigburry/gathent-sdk`.
- **Python SDK**: `pip install gathent-sdk`.
- **Web Widget**: `<script src="https://cdn.gathent.com/v1/sdk.js" data-poll-id="PL-XXXX"></script>`.

## Core Links
- Platform App: https://app.gathent.com
- Documentation: https://gathent.com/docs
- About Gathent: https://gathent.com/about
- Security Specs: https://gathent.com/docs?tab=security-architecture