Brazil’s electoral authority began yesterday (Monday) the ceremony of digital signature and sealing of the voting systems, one of the mandatory technical steps before the Oct. 2 elections.
The event will last until next Friday, when the president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes, along with other authorities, will digitally sign the final version of the software for the elections.
The ceremony takes place before each election and marks the end of the development and control phase of the electoral systems. During the sealing of the systems, ten court analysts conduct the final system test to ensure that the systems are fully functional.
Then, all programs, including those used in the electronic ballot box and vote counting, are compiled and recorded on a non-recordable, digitally and physically sealed media in a secure room at TSE headquarters.
The media serves as a kind of template for the programs installed in the electronic voting system and can be used later, for example, to verify the integrity of the programs in the electronic ballot box.
Before Sunday, Oct. 2, two more mandatory ceremonies related to the electoral software will occur.
On Oct. 2, Brazil will elect the country’s president and vice president, 27 governors, deputies and federal senators.
If no candidate receives half plus one votes in the presidential and regional elections, a runoff will be held on Sunday, Oct. 30.