Brazil’s election is 15 months away, but President Jair Bolsonaro warns almost daily of cheating, chicanery and hacking.
With his popularity plummeting amid a criminal investigation over vaccine purchases, Bolsonaro has mimicked former President Donald Trump by laying groundwork to dispute a defeat. The far-right president and his congressional allies are pushing a bill in congress, which can go to a committee vote as early as this week, requiring the nation’s 470,000 voting machines to generate a paper record of each ballot. Otherwise, Bolsonaro says, hidden actors could manipulate the results.
Electoral authorities warn that changing a 21-year-old electronic system that experts call accurate and efficient could make citizens distrust their own democracy — and introduce opportunities for real fraud.