The truth about Brazil electronic voting system

In 1996, Brazil adopted electronic voting machines for the first time, with one of the world’s largest democracies using a completely digital election process ever since. While no credible fraud allegations have surfaced over the past 25 years, the system is currently under attack from Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and his followers, who have doubled down on baseless accusations that the country’s electoral framework is not secure.

Among the objectives of Mr. Bolsonaro’s assault on the electronic voting system is to approve a mechanism that would allow machines to print paper receipts for each vote cast, which would then be deposited in a supplementary ballot box. The president’s claim is that only then could Brazil’s elections be fully “auditable,” but the country’s electoral courts vehemently disagree, saying that the reintroduction of printed votes brings with it severe risks of fraud and violation of voter confidentiality.

Amid the back and forth of conflicting information spread by the government, the opposition, and the judiciary, we asked fact-checking agency Aos Fatos to get to the bottom of eight key aspects of Brazil’s electronic voting system.

How do electronic voting machines work?

Brazil’s electronic ballot boxes are small computers developed purely for electoral purposes. They are not — and cannot be — connected to the internet, and they have several layers of in-built security.

The equipment is made up of two terminals: one for poll workers, and one for voters. The former is used to input electoral registration numbers (see below) to check whether each individual is registered to vote in the correct polling place, and whether they have already voted in the current election.

The voter terminal (below) consists of a keypad and a small screen, which individuals use to type in their votes. It has two memory cards, two batteries — one internal and one external — and uses a Linux operating system developed by Brazil’s electoral courts.

When each vote is submitted, it is saved on the memory card in an encrypted format, making it impossible to identify individual voters and ensure secrecy.

How does the count work?

Once polling...