Brazilian Defense Minister General Paulo Sergio Nogueira insisted again before the Senate today that paper ballots should be used in the upcoming October elections, “in parallel” with electronic voting.
The idea was advocated by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who aspires to renew his term in these elections and is leading a campaign to discredit electronic ballot boxes, which have been in use in the country since 1996 and have not so far been the subject of a single fraud complaint. However, the Brazilian leader argues that the electronic system is prone to fraud, claims that this even occurred in the elections he won in 2018, and proposes a return to paper ballot boxes, a possibility that the parliament itself has already rejected.
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In a hearing with a Senate committee, Minister Nogueira insisted on this point and suggested that, to ensure the transparency of the process, physical ballot boxes be installed alongside the electronic ones, in which voters could also vote on paper.
The intention, according to the military officer, would be that the judges at the polling stations, once the elections are over, recount both ballot boxes in order to verify that the result is really the same.
“There is no political interest,” but only the desire to “collaborate in improving” the process, in which the armed forces are part of an oversight commission that works within the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the minister explained.
Although Nogueira reiterated Bolsonaro’s proposal again before a Senate committee, the TSE has already ruled out the adoption of paper ballots along with electronic voting in October, although it left open the possibility of studying the issue for future elections.
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The TSE explained that under current legislation, any change would have to be approved a year before the elections, and furthermore pointed out that from a logistical point of view, it would already be impossible to prepare the necessary structure for such a parallel paper ballot.
In any case, Bolsonaro insists on the issue and even said that next week he will invite a group of 75 foreign ambassadors to inform them about the “failures” that, according to him, occurred in the last two presidential elections (2014 and 2018). According to the President, at that meeting he will present “documents,” which he says he has but never handed over to the authorities or presented in public, that would prove the irregularities detected in the electronic ballot boxes.
According to all polls, Bolsonaro’s re-election is an uphill struggle, as he has about 30% in voting intentions so far, compared to former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s 45%.
