For many years the President Jair Bolsonaro attack on his electoral systems Brazil. One of his claims was that apparent patterns repeating at the ballot box are a sign of fraud. He constantly talked about how the members of the election commission counted the votes individually, implying that they manipulated the results. In 2018, he claimed he suspected hackers were trying to steal the presidency from him, but failed. These claims are false, according to election officials, cross-reference agencies and independent election security experts who have studied the e-voting system.

Yet in speeches, interviews, and hundreds of social media posts, the president has persistently repeated these baseless claims and more about Brazil’s electoral system. The result was a years-long campaign to undermine citizens’ faith in the electoral process in one of the world’s largest democracies. In a recent poll this month, three out of four Bolsonaro supporters said they had little or no trust in voting machines in Brazil. Now Brazil is in chaos. Although Bolsonaro has been warning against fraud for years, he has never lost a contest in his 30-year political career. But on Sunday, in the second round of the presidential election, he may lose. And he hinted that he would not accept it.

President’s actions

The New York Times analyzed hours of interviews, speeches, live broadcasts, and thousands of social media posts to chart his efforts to criticize or challenge the electoral system. A picture emerges of an elected leader, first as a member of Congress and then as president, who built a fraud narrative based on inaccuracies, unrelated reports, circumstantial evidence, conspiracy theories, and outright lies — just like the ex-president of the United States. United States, Donald Trump.

Although Bolsonaro has been warning against fraud for years, he has never lost a contest in his 30-year political career.

His evidence has focused on apparent flaws in the electoral process and outcomes, often unattributed and based on hypothetical fraud scenarios that appear much more likely than they actually are. When Bolsonaro rose to power and fame, his statements were supported by members of Congress, conservative commentators and their adult sons, and a wide network of disinformation. Despite his protests, there has been no evidence of fraud with electronic voting machines since Brazil began using them in 1996. On the contrary, these machines have eliminated the fraud that once plagued the country’s elections in the era of paper ballots.

digital account

The system is unique. Brazil is the only country in the world that collects and counts votes entirely digitally, with no paper substitutes. This is precisely what Bolsonaro uses, arguing that without paper, no one can be sure that the ballot is counted correctly. Experts assure that a number of security measures prevent errors or fraud. Officials check dozens of cars on the day of the contest to make sure the votes are counted correctly. Each polling station publishes the count in such a way that it matches the national result. Independent experts check the software of the vending machines.

Most voters use their fingerprints to unlock cars, while others present their ID to voting agents. And the machines are not connected to the Internet, which reduces the chance of a hacker attack. Even when an investigation by Chartered Accountants in 2014 failed to substantiate his claims, Bolsonaro remained unconvinced and vowed to abolish electronic voting.

When, a year later, Congress approved a bill to simultaneously introduce paper ballots confirming the result of electronic voting, the Supreme Court vetoed it. Bolsonaro hit back, saying the decision shows the political establishment is protecting a vulnerable system to help the left manipulate the next election. Nevertheless, in 2018 he won and continued to accuse of fraud.

Lead to Lula

Former President Lula leads by six percentage points in the latest polls ahead of the decisive second round of Brazil’s presidential election the day after Sunday. The last days of the election campaign were marked by a flurry of revelations about the mechanisms for distributing public money on direct orders from outgoing President Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro, also known as the “Brazilian Trump”, who ruled with the support of the military and Brazil’s powerful agribusiness lobby, tried to create a network of influence through the uncontrolled distribution of public money. According to the revelations, more than $3 billion is held annually in black funds. “This is the biggest corruption scandal on the planet,” said Conservative Senator Simone Tebbet, a candidate disqualified in the second round of the presidential election. One of the biggest challenges for Lula’s communicators was to explain to Brazilian voters in a simple and understandable way the seriousness of the case. Waste directly awarded included, among other things, robotics systems for schools with no running water or electricity, and thousands of X-rays of citizens with no orthopedic problems.