Brazil’s rapid election count puts spotlight on voting security ahead of US midterms
Brazil's presidential election results were known in less than four hours after polls closed on October 4, showcasing the world's largest digital voting system that has operated without proven fraud since 1996.
The system has been in place for over three decades, with Brazilians accustomed to its speed, simplicity, accuracy and routine. The machines are robustly audited, completely disconnected from the Internet, and represent the largest digital voting system deployed globally.
Eleven days before the U.S. midterms, Brazil's system could offer Americans insights into more secure voting methods. The system has been widely praised and was mentioned in President Donald Trump's 2025 executive order on elections, where he cited Brazil's biometric voter identification as an example.
Biometric verification
Brazil has merged federal, state and municipal databases into a digital voting record where voter identity, eligibility and single ability to vote are verified biometrically. Nearly 9 in 10 voters unlock the machines with a fingerprint.
The TSE, which designs the machines and oversees elections, states there has been no proven fraud since their 1996 debut. The 499,248 machines used on October 4 never connected to the internet.
It is an extremely secure and safe system. The machines never connect to the Internet and even the central database system used to transmit tallied votes to TSE must match results issued physically and locally by each individual machine without human interference.
Transparency measures
The machines' software was open to inspection by parties, universities and watchdogs for 11 months before being digitally signed and sealed in public. Last December, the Brazilian government invited a record 149 outsiders to try to break the system; evaluators concluded nothing they found could alter results or reveal how anyone voted.
On election day, randomly drawn machines are fed paper ballots on camera as federal auditors and foreign observers watch. At closing, every machine prints its tally, posted in front of polling places with a QR code for public verification against the national count.
Political test
The system passed its toughest political test in 2022, when former President Jair Bolsonaro spent years attacking the machines' credibility without evidence. Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year sentence for plotting to overturn his 2022 defeat, under house arrest.
This year, for the first time, a Bolsonaro appointee ran the TSE: Justice Kassio Nunes Marques. Bolsonaro's eldest son, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, finished first with 47% to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's 45%, with the machines potentially handing victory to his son.
Florencia Ferrer, CEO of e-stategiapublica which has audited elections in 17 countries, stated: "The question is not whether Brazil has invented a perfect voting machine. No voting system is perfect. It is whether democracies can combine the speed and consistency of digital tabulation with independent verification, public scrutiny and rules that citizens across the political spectrum have reason to trust."
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