:: You poll-watcher: a campaign to increase elections accountability in Brazil

Last Sunday was the Election Day in Brazil, a day that can be considered the peak of the democracy. Despite the fact that Brazil has been a democratic country for the last three decades, democracy is not something ready or finished (Chadwick, 2013) and need constant surveillance. That is why campaigns as “You poll-watcher” are so important. 

Since 1996, Brazilian’s elections are based in electronic ballot boxes, computers used exclusively for the elections (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, 2014). The organizers of the campaign, as you can see in the video below, argument that the system is not secure and invite the voters to increase the accountability of the elections by photographing the extracts of the electronic ballot boxes (Você Fiscal, 2014).

Subtitles included by this blog. 

To see the original video click here

Although the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) admits that was possible to change the sequence of votes in the tests realized in 2012, in defense of the systems' security TSE affirms that was not possible to link voters' names and votes. The Court also assures that is not possible to manipulate the results of the election, since the electoral system works in such way that, if the system is under attack, the electronic ballot box does not produce valid results (Você Fiscal, 2014).

Brazilian electronic ballot box
(Photograph:www.abadianoticia.com.br)

The campaign is audacious and the results are uncertain. Nevertheless, since one of the roles of social movements is to bring new themes to the public agenda (Diani and Porta, 2006), the main contribution of this campaign seems to be the discussion about a lack of accountability in the Brazilian elections. In order to analyze this issue, among others, this blog will keep an eye on this campaign.

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Diani, M. and della Porta, D. (2006) Social Movements: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell.

Chadwick, A. (2013) The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press  

Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (2014). Electronic ballot. [online] 

[Available at <http://www.tse.jus.br/eleicoes/biometria-e-urna-eletronica/urna-eletronica>] [Accessed at 6 October 2014].

Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (2014). Security. [online]

[Available at <http://www.tse.jus.br/eleicoes/biometria-e-urna-eletronica/seguranca>] [Accessed at 6 October 2014].

Você Fiscal (2014). Carta aberta ao eleitor. [online]

[Available at <www.vocefiscal.org/carta-aberta>] [Accessed at 6 October 2014].