The credibility of the electoral process under attack

In 2021, right when the implementation of the Brazilian electronic ballots completes 25 years, its reliability and security are put in question in light of rising discussions about the implementation of paper ballots. The effort to modify the Brazilian electoral process is linked to a constant attempt made by the government to undermine the credibility of the elections and the voting system, which were already considered a symbol of Brazilian democracy by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). 

Since 2019, Jair Bolsonaro, the current Brazilian President, claimed that there were frauds during the elections suggesting that the electronic voting system could not be trusted. Nonetheless, in 2021, these attacks became more incisive and frequent, coming both from Bolsonaro himself and his supporters. On many occasions, Bolsonaro affirmed that the current electoral organization allows fraud, but never showed any evidence to confirm his claims. Besides this, Bolsonaro has also said that there would be no elections without paper ballots, linked the TSE to electoral irregularities and offended the President of the referred Court, Justice Luís Roberto Barroso – who is also a Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice.

The claims are part of a strategy to delegitimize the entire electoral process and affect its functioning and also the relation among Brazilian institutions. The TSE published statements refuting the claims of fraud and reinforcing the security and the auditability of the electronic voting machines in light of the attacks. In a stronger response to Bolsonaro’s offenses, the Brazilian electoral court has opened two proceedings against him after he promoted a live broadcast with numerous attacks on the elections and leaked a police investigation about possible irregularities in the election. Due to this tensioning of relations, political parties, the National Congress and the STF have taken action in order to preserve the relations among the Executive, Electoral and Judiciary branches.

It is worth noting that Bolsonaro does not only promote these attacks by himself. He has allies that also occupy other strategic positions to help him take away the confidence in the electoral system. It is the case of Federal deputy Bia Kicis (PSL-DF) and of the Lower House Speaker Arthur Lira (PP-AL). Kicis heads a parliamentary commission that was responsible for discussing a Constitutional Amendment (‘PEC’) that would implement paper ballots. She also used public funds to promote attacks on the electronic voting machines on social media, being one of the major supporters of the alteration in the Brazilian electoral system. Lira, in turn, has also endorsed Bolsonaro’s support to paper ballots under the justification that elections require ‘a more transparent audit’. Bolsonaro then called him the ‘father of the paper ballots’.

This paper ballot debate went way beyond the theoretical level because of Kicis’s and Lira’s support, considering that the PEC on paper ballots modification was taken to discussion in the Lower House after being rejected by the special commission that was previously discussing the matter, which is unusual and goes against the Lower House statute. When including the topic in the Lower House voting agenda, Arthur Lira argued that it was a matter that required an exceptional proceeding, a decision in its ‘highest level of decision power’, since there were movements supporting the paper ballots in Brazil. However, the proposal was not approved because it lacked the sufficient votes, even with massive mobilizations coming from Bolsonaro’s allies.

Even after the defeat in the National Congress and TSE’s statements, the President and his allies continue to undermine the population’s confidence in electronic ballots and in the electoral system, which reinforces the growing tension among the power branches. In the context of the most recent attacks and offenses, it is worth mentioning the speech of the deputy and government leader in the Lower House Ricardo Barros (PP-PR), who said that the TSE would pay a high price in the future for standing against paper ballots.

The tactic of adopting an offensive stance against the electoral system, through allegations against the fairness of the elections, which results in a growing political tension, is a noticeable trend in other parts of the world as well. Former US President Donald Trump was already strongly endorsing the idea that the US electoral system had been rigged even before the end of the vote counting proceedings in the 2020 elections. The same argument was used by candidate Keiko Fujimori in Peru, after the victory of her opponent, Pedro Castillo, to the presidential office. In Brazil, the fraud claims made by the ones in power are also related to an attempt of creating an enemy out of political opponents: Bolsonaro has already declared that Dilma Rousseff did not win the 2014 election and that former President Lula would only win the 2022 election if he committed fraud.

In addition, attacks on the electoral system were used during the pro-government demonstrations held on September 9, 2021, incited by Bolsonaro and counted with the help of the more authoritarian and offensive political sectors, that usually state offenses especially aimed at the STF Justices Alexandre de Moraes and Luís Roberto Barroso. This matter appeared both in Bolsonaro’s statements during the event, and in posters from his supporters, which exposed requests for public counting of votes in the 2022 election and direct offenses against the STF and TSE Justices and the electronic ballots.

Read more about the attacks by Bolsonaro and his allies on the Brazilian electoral system and the TSE since 2020 below, which have contributed to creating a political environment of permanent tension among the power branches and to the weakening of democracy in Brazil.