In elections for federal deputy, state or district deputy and councilor, those elected are not necessarily those who had the most votes. This situation can generate confusion among voters regarding the destination of their vote at the ballot box.
What happens to my vote? Can I end up electing another candidate, another party? Technically, yes, in cases that could be considered exceptions to the rule.
To explain this specific situation, however, it is necessary to understand some concepts of the Brazilian electoral process, such as the proportional voting system, the subtitle vote and the electoral quotient.
THE CNN heard Ricardo Vita Porto, president of the Electoral Law Commission of the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) in São Paulo, to help clear up this doubt for voters.
Deputies are chosen by the proportional system
While the President of the Republic, governors, senators and mayors are chosen by the majority system, in which the winner is the one who obtains the most votes, the proportional system, valid for deputies and councilors, does not consider only nominal votes.
This system prioritizes, at first, the votes given to parties or party federations. Only in a second step is the vote of each candidate within their party or federation taken into account.
It is worth mentioning that the voter has the option to vote nominally for a candidate or vote for the legend, choosing the party number and attributing their choice only to that acronym.
These characteristics of the proportional system offer an option to voters: if their vote fails to elect the chosen candidate, they can still contribute to the election of a candidate from the same political party or party federation to which the party belongs.
But, since the 2018 elections, some very specific situations allow the legend vote to “migrate” to another party or party federation. According to Ricardo Vita Porto, cases of this type are rare and constitute an “exception to the rule”.
How are elected deputies defined?
Before meeting the new federal and state deputies – and also the councilors, in municipal elections -, the votes of each party, or party federation, are added up and compared to find out how many seats that acronym or federation won.
Afterwards, the most voted candidates from each legend or federation are counted – which, consequently, fill the vacancies won.
But the calculation that defines parliamentarians has an extra complexity, which is established by the electoral quotient and the party quotient.
Briefly, the electoral quotient adds up the number of valid votes – party and nominal votes of all parties and candidates, excluding blanks and nulls – and divides the result by the number of seats in dispute. It is worth remembering that the number of seats for federal, state and district deputies, in addition to councilors, varies in each state or municipality.
In principle, only parties or party federations that reach the electoral quotient are entitled to a seat. However, since the 2018 elections, it has been possible for these parties to participate in the distribution of “surplus votes” – which is precisely the reason that the votes cast in the party can “migrate” to another.
After all, can my vote go to another candidate or another party?
Yup. There is a possibility that the voter who votes for the party ends up benefiting another party or party federation. This is because, according to a rule implemented by the Electoral Justice in 2016, the party that won one or more seats can only occupy it if the candidate classified has obtained at least 10% of the electoral quotient.
Therefore, if the majority of votes are in the party, the best-placed candidates may not reach the “cut-off”, and the party ends up losing their seats. In this case, the TSE redoes the calculations to determine the remaining seats, which can be distributed to other parties whose candidates have reached the electoral quotient.
However, as explained by Ricardo Vita Porto, this happens in very specific situations. “This is an exception to the rule. The legend vote, in the vast majority of cases, contributes to the party winning a seat”, clarifies the president of the OAB Electoral Law Commission. In most cases, he explains, votes do not go to another party.
Rule harms the effect of vote pullers
According to Vita Porto, this rule, which determines that the candidate has obtained 10% of the electoral quotient, harms the effect of candidates known as “vote pullers”. “It prevents a candidate with an inexpressive vote from winning a seat,” she explains.
As of the 2022 elections, this rule has been improved: now, when the vacancy is coming from a distribution of leftovers, the candidate must obtain at least 20% of the electoral quotient to win the seat.
Voting for the party is beneficial for the electoral system, says expert
Despite the possible effect of “migration” of the vote to another party, Ricardo Vita Porto considers the proportional system as positive, because it “takes advantage of the voter’s will”.
“Even if the vote does not contribute to the individual election of a candidate, it will at least be used to contribute to the election of another politician from that party – which, in theory, should represent the same ideas, the same platforms and the same projects. Otherwise, the voter’s vote could be totally wasted”, says the expert.
He also points out that the option of voting for the party is an alternative for voters to help the party, or party federation, to win more seats. “In other words, it helps the party win one more seat, but those who will fill them are the candidates for whom the other voters voted nominally”, he adds.
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I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
