Explaining Brazil #133: What Brazil can teach the U.S. about elections

As the world ceaselessly followed the U.S. elections through what was a lengthy and, quite frankly, anticlimactic vote count, Brazilians could not help themselves but gloat about their own country’s state-of-the-art electronic voting system.

With social media users from around the world piling onto the American election system, Brazilians joked that, in the time it took for networks to call the vote for Democratic challenger Joe Biden, Brazil would have already confirmed their winner, celebrated the result, filed for impeachment, and brought in a whole new government.

While that’s a bit of an exaggeration, of course, the Brazilian system is known for being effective, inclusive, and really very fast.

And as Brazilians prepare to vote for mayors and city councilors this Sunday, we have a look at what the U.S. could learn from Brazil.

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On this episode:

• Daniel Falcão is an electoral law expert and professor at the IDP Institute of Public Law in Brasília. He holds a postgraduate degree in political marketing and a Ph.D. in constitutional law from the University of São Paulo, and clerked at the Superior Court of Justice — Brazil’s second-highest judicial body.

Background reading:

• For a foreign audience, mayoral races may seem too parochial, but they actually have a significant impact on national politics. And what happens in November 2020 will have ripple effects on the 2022 presidential election.
• Municipal elections highlight challenges facing Brazil’s left-wing, writes Débora Álvares.
• Brazil’s epidemic of political violence gets worse ahead of municipal elections, writes Renato Alves.
• 2020 Election: What is at stake in São Paulo and Rio.
• Listen to Explaining Brazil episode #113: Covid-19 made Brazilian elections more exposed to fake news.

Do you have a suggestion for our next Explaining Brazil podcast? Drop us a line at podcast@brazilian.report

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