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The 2014 general election in Brazil will
see the election of a Brazilian President, as well as the National Congress,
state governors and state legislatures. Incumbent President Dilma Rousseff of
the Workers' Party, the first female president of the country, is running for
re-election and she has been the front-runner in the first round of opinion
polls. This election will also prove to be intriguing because of the increased
role that electronic voting technology will be taking in the process.
Electronic voting, or “e-voting,” has had a
long
and strong history in Brazil. Each successive election has introduced
greater measures and technology to help ensure improved security and increased
automation. The 2014 Brazilian general elections are no different.
For those who are casting their ballots
from abroad, Brazil's Federal District Regional Electoral Court (TRE-DF) is
deploying over 900 voting machines to nearly 100 countries around the
world. Remote voting for expatriates and those working abroad is an issue that
is sometimes downplayed in other elections around the world, but the TRE-DF is
treating it as an important priority.
The process for preparing, sealing,
shipping and deploying the electronic voting machines is being very carefully
monitored and controlled. The TRE-DF is working closely with consulates and
diplomatic missions from the different countries. An audit team checks all the
machines before they are securely stored for transport and the transportation process
falls under the same rigorous scrutiny for security as those machines used in
Brazil itself.
Brazil started testing electronic voting
way back in 1996 with the goal of extreme simplicity. The machines were meant
to be easy to use and easy to deploy, automating the electoral process as much
as possible. In the nearly two decades that have followed, Brazil has continued
to utilize technology, including direct-recording electronic voting machines
(DRE). Efficiency, confidentiality and security have improved greatly.
In an effort to further improve security,
Brazil introduced
a biometric voter authentication system in a 2008 pilot project that
continued with the elections that followed in 2010 and 2012. The system,
overseen by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) utilizes a high-definition
biometric fingerprint scanner. The pilot project only saw use by a 100,000 voters
across three counties, but this number grew to over a million voters in 60
cities for 2010. In the 2012 election, some 7.7 million voters were
authenticated and identified via the biometric system. Voter fraud is minimized
and the legitimacy of the vote is upheld.
For the 2014 general election, the
deployment of biometric authentication is expanding once again. Over 22 million
people will be identified by their fingerprints.
With a geographical area of 8.5 million
square kilometres (3.2 million square miles), Brazil is the fifth largest
country in the world. While the majority of its citizens do live in urban areas
like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil still has many remote rural areas
where voters may struggle with access. By deploying over 1400 Broadband Global
Area Network SABRE satellite terminals, a Smartmatic-led consortium called
Smartitec is securing
data and voice communications in Brazil's 15 most isolated states. Voters
in remote areas have just as much of a right to choosing their government as
their urban counterparts.
Between the deployment of voting terminals
for remote voting abroad, the expanded use of biometrics for voter
authentication, and the inclusion of secure satellite terminals for voting in
remote areas, Brazil's 2014 general elections illustrate the powerful use of
technology in the modern electoral process.
