# Votes A vote is used by representatives as a means to communicate their intent to add a set of blocks to their ledger. Depending on the time-frame that an issued vote is valid for, it is either considered a temporary or permanent vote. Both temporary and permanent votes on Keeta Network are encoded as X.509 certificates. X.509 was chosen because it is a widely-used and well-known standard, and contains a flexible data structure using ASN.1. Each vote contains the following: **An Issuer:** The [account](/components/accounts.md) that signed the vote **Serial:** An arbitrary integer defined by the issuer which is generally incrementing. Two separate votes with the same issuer + serial will not be accepted by the network **Blocks:** A set of hashes of [blocks](/components/blocks.md) that the issuer is vouching validity for **Starting Time:** The timestamp when the vote was issued **Ending/Expiry Time:** The timestamp of when the vote expires and should not be considered in quorum anymore **Signature:** The issuers signature on the data included, proving that they were the one to issue the vote A vote is considered valid to a representative in the [voting process](/architecture/consensus.md) if it is not expired, the serial has not been seen before, and the set of blocks is valid. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.keeta.com/architecture/consensus/votes.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.