Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court brings forward release of electoral system source codes

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) on Monday (4) announced it would soon release the source codes to be used in next year’s elections. The TSE is thus reacting to attacks made by President Jair Bolsonaro against the system and the use of electronic voting machines.

Consequently, the release of this information, which is typically made public 6 months before the elections and not a year, has been brought forward.

“We have always believed in the system’s security, transparency and auditability. What has been happening, and everyone has seen it, is a campaign that somehow has generated a certain degree of distrust in the voting system,” lamented TSE Chief Judge Luis Roberto Barroso.

Therefore, the early release of the data has been done with the goal of “improving good practices and the need to enhance the transparency of the process.”

Delving into this issue, Barroso criticized that President Bolsonaro, elected by 58 million voters in 2018, has “daily” spoken out against the system, “casting doubt on its reliability,” spreading this distrust to “over 20% of the population.”

The TSE will thus provide all political parties with the system’s source code so that their representatives may examine and supervise every step of the development of the programs used.

Barroso invited the presidents of the 22 political parties represented in Congress to attend the ceremony, as well as the 12 members of the Electoral Transparency Committee, set up by the Court and comprising legislators and officials from organizations such as the Federal Audit Court and the Prosecutor’s Office.

The event will include a technical visit to the vault room and the place where the electoral system’s source codes will be opened, in the building of the Secretariat of Information Technology.

Electoral officials from groups such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations (UNIORE) will also be present.