I believe the `sort=votes` parameter is for when you are retrieving multiple questions in one API call, such as with this URL - the questions in the response are ordered by vote. 

[http://api.stackoverflow.com/0.8/questions/1429951;2383701;619895?sort=votes&type=jsontext][1]


  [1]: http://api.stackoverflow.com/0.8/questions/1429951;2383701;619895?sort=votes&type=jsontext