Fachin counters Bolsonaro and says criticism of simultaneous vote counting is inappropriate

The president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Minister Edson Fachin, countered President Jair Bolsonaro by saying that there is, yes, a simultaneous count of votes. Fachin did not name the President of the Republic.

In participation by videoconference in a conservative event this Sunday (12), the president said that the Electoral Transparency Commission (CTE), led by the court, did not accept a proposal that would have been made by the Armed Forces, to enable a mechanism for counting simultaneous votes.

“Criticism is inappropriate. Yesterday, the 12th, the high authority said that ‘the simultaneous counting of votes was a ‘very important’ alternative that was left out’. With all due respect, there is a misinformation. Those who question only demonstrate political motivation or technical ignorance of the subject. I am now referring specifically to an interview with a high official of the Republic in which he mentions that it is not possible to count votes at the same time,” said Fachin.

The minister cited a rule of the Court that states that the TSE will make available the ballot boxes sent for aggregation and the correspondence tables carried out on its website, throughout the period of receipt, as an alternative for viewing, giving wide dissemination in the media.

“It is, therefore, a tool that will allow any institution to count the votes simultaneously. To do so, you will need access to the internet, where the ballot box files from polling stations will be available. Such files will effectively be the results of each polling station, made available in their original format,” said Fachin.

According to the minister, “this is the problem: disinformation is spread to attack the electoral justice system. Our answers are information and data with evidence.”

“With the ballot papers that come out of the electronic voting machines, any institution can make their totals, and this is already done. It is common to witness, in supplementary elections, parties and candidates that carry out this totalization process by their own means and that, sometimes long before the Electoral Justice, already know the results”, he said.

Earlier, in a note, the TSE clarified that the simultaneous counting of votes has been possible for several elections and that it has implemented new features for this year’s election, with the publication of the Ballot Boxes (BU) as soon as they are received after the close of voting.

“It is, therefore, a tool that will allow any person or institution to count votes at the same time. For this, it is necessary to have access to the internet, where the files of the Bus of the polling stations will be available. Such files effectively correspond to the results of each polling station, made available in their original format. That is, without additional processing, which ensures the origin and full integrity in relation to the data issued by the electronic voting machines. Such authenticity will be ensured through verification of digital signatures,” the note said.

The TSE reinforced that, if the interested institution wants to make such a count even before it is made available on the internet, this is also possible.

Fachin’s demonstration took place at the Meeting of Electoral Magistrates.

“There is no peace without democracy. There is no democracy without social inclusion. Only with real and effective equality in public and private spaces open to equitable reception will there be citizenship that does not live with discrimination, especially against women. Democracy without the expression of the feminine atrophies, becomes a formality, loses representation,” she said.

Bolsonaro

Last Sunday (12), President Jair Bolsonaro said that the Electoral Transparency Commission (CTE), led by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), did not accept the proposal that would have been made by the Armed Forces, to provide a mechanism for counting simultaneous votes. The statement was made by videoconference during participation in a conservative event.

“The TSE itself invited the Armed Forces [a colaborar nas eleições]. We present suggestions. We present it and at the moment they say that they totally or partially accepted the suggestions. But there’s a very important one that tomorrow I’ll look into it better. They did not accept, or partially accepted, the most important one, which is the simultaneous counting of votes,” Bolsonaro said at CPAC (Conference on Conservative Political Action, in Portuguese).

Debate

THE CNN will hold the first presidential debate of 2022. The confrontation between the candidates will be broadcast live on August 6, on TV and on our digital platforms