Brazil is one of the world’s voting technology pioneers. Voting is compulsory and Brazilians have been voting electronically for over 15 years.
It’s the fifth largest country in the world. There’s a huge number of registered voters – over 140 million. And it’s difficult to provide communications to remote regions.
So our role was to support deployment and configuration of satellite devices that enabled data and voice communications across the sixteen most isolated states during the 2012 municipal elections.
Then in another bidding process a month later, the TSE selected the ESF consortium (Smartmatic Brasil Ltda, Smartmatic International Corporation, Engetec and Fixti) to provide elections support and battery maintenance.
Services
Project one – Data and voice communications support for isolated states
Smartmatic’s first contract with Brazil’s TSE included:
- Configuring 1,320 BGAN Sabre satellite terminals with data and voice communications
- Distributing and deploying the satellite terminals in the capitals of 16 Brazilian states (see image above)
- Training the appointed TSE trainers
- Providing complete and up-to-date documentation on how to install and operate the equipment
- Setting up a call centre to provide technical support via a 24-hour freephone number
- Maintaining the equipment to ensure it worked properly
- Collecting the units back when the election had finished
Project two – Operator and technician recruitment and training
Our second contract was to provide technical support and maintain the batteries belonging to the voting machines.
It sounds simple enough yet, in a country the size of Brazil, this involved hiring and training 14,000 technicians across 27 Brazilian states.
That included a staggering 5,568 municipalities, 480,000 polling stations and over 500,000 pieces of election equipment.
Technician training included how to:
- Keeping the internal and back up batteries of the voting machines charged
- Testing of all electronic components of the voting machines
- Cleaning, removing seals, functional testing, screening for corrective maintenance and preparation for storage of the machines
- Data entry, preparation, installation, and software upgrading, along with others tasks
Our ESF Consortium (Smartmatic Brasil Ltda, Smartmatic International Corporation, Engetec and Fixti) was also responsible for transmitting and receiving media reports on the voting system.
We also recruited 27 regional managers (one for each state and one specifically for the capital), human resource managers and technical coordinators.
Partnerships
Brazil is an enormous country – the fifth largest in the world. There’s a huge number of registered voters – over 140 million. And it’s difficult to provide communications to remote regions.
As a result, Brazil’s electoral agency, the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE), decided to ask specialist companies to pitch technical solutions that would meet these challenges. In May 2012, after a highly competitive tender process, the TSE selected the Engematic consortium (comprised of Engetec, Smartmatic Brasil Ltda and Smartmatic International Corporation).
Smartmatic in Brazil – Partnering with success
The combined experience of these successful companies provided the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) with the most robust services and project management teams for the October 2012 elections.
The Engematic consortium is made up by of Engetec, Smartmatic Brasil Ltda and Smartmatic International Corporation.
The ESF consortium comprises Smartmatic Brasil Ltda, Smartmatic International Corporation, Engetec and Fixti.
About Engetec
Engetec is an IT and communications solutions and services provider. It’s headquartered in New Lima (MG, Brazil), with offices in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro. It’s implemented projects in all Brazilian regions.
About Fixti
Fixti supplies IT solutions to companies within finance, telecommunications and governments.
Automated voting in Brazil
We supplied crucial support in the shape of training and equipment maintenance services for these Brazilian elections. The country was already one of the world’s leading automated voting pioneers. Find out more on this page.
Electronic voting pioneers
Brazil was an electronic voting early adopter. Like most countries, it gradually implemented different technological solutions at various stages of the electoral cycle (see key milestones below).
In Brazil, regulating, administering and judging electoral processes is handled by one single institution, the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE), or Electoral Superior Court – and this has helped facilitate and simplify the uptake of new technology.
Key milestones in Brazil’s adoption of voting technology
1982 – Computerised results totaling
1985 – Automation of voter registry
1995 – Law passed to allow use of electronic voting machines
1996 – 1/3rd of voting population voted used voting machines
1998 – 2/3rds population used voting machines
2000 – Entire voting population used voting machines
2008 – Biometric authentication of voters in municipal elections
2016 – Biometric authentication for whole country
The Brazilian voting process consists of four separate steps:
- Voter identification
- Vote casting
- Vote tallying (each electronic ballot box)
- Vote tallying
Computer technology has been employed in all of those four steps. The elections held on October 2012 served over 140 million registered voters.
About Brazil
Brazil is a Federal Republic comprised of 26 states, one federal district and 5,564 municipalities.
Each one of those entities has autonomous administrations and collects its own taxes.
The 1988 constitution established the classic check and balances system, comprising three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial.
The president, head of the executive branch, is elected for a four year-term by absolute majority through a two-round system.
The legislative branch, also referred to as the National Congress, is divided into the Chamber of Deputies (513 members, elected every 4 years) and the Federal Senate (81 members, elected every eight years).
The judiciary power is comprised primarily by ordinary courts (Federal and State’s judiciaries) and specialised courts (Military, Labour and Electoral courts)
In Brazil it’s compulsory to vote for citizens aged 18-70 – and only voluntary for those 16-18 or the illiterate.
Its voting system is said to enable people who cannot read or write to vote because it allows people to pick a party via a recognisable image.
A study has shown that electronic voting may have even played a role in improving infant health in the country
Military conscripts do not vote in Brazil.
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world with an area of 8,514,877 km2, and a population of approximately 196 million people. Although Portuguese is the official language, a considerable amount of native languages are spoken across the nation by Amerindians.
Home of vast natural riches and a buoyant industrial sector, Brazil overtook the United Kingdom in 2011 as the world’s seventh largest economy in terms of GDP.
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