Allow public to edit content type I have a content type that users can vote on so I need that content type to keep tally of the votes.

I'm assuming I need to allow the public to edit that content type but, unsure how to go about doing so. 

I on the daily basis use web services on other projects and would just POST the data to the entry on click of a button or something. Is it a similar way just POST a change to the content type via ajax in drupal?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, majority of my skills are in front-end dev not server side so any help is appreciated.
I'm not sure I understand you correctly but let me clarify:
A.If you have a new content type that users can vote for that. You just use the votingapi http://drupal.org/project/votingapi and use with Fivestar module http://drupal.org/project/fivestar or plus1 module http://drupal.org/project/plus1. You will go to plus1 or fivestar for setting the content type that be voted.
B.To determine the total of the votes of your content type you should do following:


Create a new view and choose the type of your content, remove sort options, fields and other default settings.  
Add a field for "Content: Type" Expand the "advanced" part on the right and set "Use aggregation" to "Yes"  
Create the relationships with votes table("Content: Votes")  
Add another field for "Content: Votes", click "Aggregation settings" and set the aggregation type to "count" 
The second "Content: Votes" should now look like " COUNT(Votes: Value)"  and now you can see your content type and the total votes of that.


C. In order to anonymous users can edit your content type just go to permissions and set configuration for anonymous users.