The year 2026 is a major year in Brazilian politics. On October 4th, the first round of the General Elections will take place, and this year voters will elect the country’s main political offices and the largest number of representatives: president, governors, senators, as well as federal, state, and district deputies.
Brazil, as a democracy, understands electoral systems as a way to represent diverse social groups and ensure an efficient and impartial vote-counting process, utilizing both majority and proportional systems in Brazilian elections.
Why did Brazil transition to electronic voting?
Since 1822, fraud such as votes cast before the elections even started, ballot box tampering, and voter coercion were common. Due to this, in 1996, electronic voting technology was implemented to prevent frequent fraud in the electoral process and bring greater security and confidence to elections. Because of this, Brazil is among the 20 countries that use electronic voting machines, unlike the electoral systems of other countries, such as the US and some European nations. This system allows Brazilians to know the results of their elections just a few hours after the polls close.
Two Types of Electoral Systems
The majority system considers the winner to be the candidate with the most votes and is used to elect representatives to the Legislative Branch (members of the Federal Senate) and the Executive Branch (President of the Republic, governors, and mayors).
The proportional system, on the other hand, is one in which representation reflects the proportion of voters’ preferences for political parties, electing federal, state, and district deputies and city council members.
How the Electronic Voting Machine Operates
To ensure system integrity, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) utilizes a layered security model involving audits before, during, and after the process, with experts and citizens able to participate in certain stages to ensure that no violations occur.
On election day, a document is printed to prove that no votes have been registered on the voting machine before. After this, the voter presents an ID, is identified via biometrics and a photo, and is cleared to enter the voting booth by the poll worker. At the machine, the voter enters the candidates’ numbers, and their photo, name, and party show up for verification. The vote is recorded when the voter presses “confirm.”
At the end of the voting period, at 5:00 p.m. Brasília time, the voting machine prints five copies of the tally sheet, which records the total votes for candidates, political parties, blank votes, and null votes. One copy is posted on the polling section door, while the others are sent to the electoral registry office and party representatives.
Afterwards, the voting machines and their memory cards are sent to the Regional Electoral Courts (TREs) for authenticity testing, where officials analyze whether the security layers have been compromised, and the data is transmitted to the Superior Electoral Court.
At the TSE, all votes sent by the TREs are tabulated and consolidated. The process is conducted publicly, allowing any citizen to access the TSE platform and follow the count live, or follow the results through radio, TV, and the internet. By the end of the day, Brazilians generally know who their new political representatives are or whether there will be a runoff election.
With an electorate of over 150 million people spread across a continent-sized country, Brazil’s electronic voting system has established itself as a fast and transparent system, allowing results to be released within hours of the polls closing.
The article above was edited by Isabella Simões.
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