If I was Brazilian I would never support Bolsanaro, but he was right about the electronic voting machines.
It is shocking to me that there is not a paper record for each cast vote in Brazil.
It is shocking to me that there is not a paper record for each cast vote in Brazil.
He did have a problem with the machines for a long time, and so did other candidates and parties. It was them who changed their stance to avoid being on the same side as Bolsonaro.
I don't agree with that. I'm curious about where a person can verify that their vote is actually the one counted? Because you can't in the US (whether by mail or in person).
Don't get me wrong, I think and individual printout would be great! And even better if you could go online (or somewhere) and verify that the vote counted was the one that you have a receipt for. I just don't think these improvements justify Bolsonaro's claims.
One of the reasons for the vote being secret and not leaving the ballot is to avoid people being coerced to vote for any particular candidate.
In Brazil we have the concept of electoral corrals. This is a known and wide practice, although it was much worse in the past. Electoral courts and processes have been fighting this since the early days of Brazilian democracy.
In a nutshell, this is when someone who holds a certain amount of power over many individuals (an employer, a farmer, a community leader, a church pastor, etc) exercises this power in order to coerce people into voting for their favoured candidate even if it goes against the individual's best interests and preference.
They would make people prove that they voted for candidate A, or get fired, expelled from the community, perhaps even fear for their or their family's lives.
These practices still happen and have increased massively this year compared to previous elections, but they're still lower than they used to be.
If people left the ballot with proof of whom they voted for, it would be much easier to coerce them.
With a secret vote being enforced the way it is, individuals still have the choice to agree with their superiors but cast whatever vote they want.
It's not perfect. Like I mentioned, the problem still exists, but it's reduced.
Like other commenters have already said though, the ballots are auditable (and audited).
I would rather our systems and processes keep improving rather than going back to worse ways just because what we have now is not perfect.
Yes, he is right about the problems of a nonexistent paper trail of votes.
I've never seen voting machines but I remember reading constantly about US southern states using them and the suspicions. As I said many democratic nations have banned them.
https://portal.tcu.gov.br/en_us/imprensa/news/tcu-audits-bra...
There are many valid criticisms against this system. It not being opensource, it's audit process being very restrictive etc... There is a nice presentation following a conclusion of a vulnerability test that highlight many of the issues: https://youtu.be/4MgsGdbtf6o
But this impossibility you claim is just nonsensical.