Commentary
The first round of the 2022 Brazilian presidential election is scheduled for Oct. 2. It will be the seventh national presidential election using electronic voting machines, which are similar to self-service touchscreen devices found at fast food restaurants. Besides Brazil, the other countries that use electronic voting machines nationwide are Bhutan, India, and Venezuela.
These voting machines were introduced to elections in Brazil on the grounds of improving efficiency and saving money. However, there have been several reports of problems with the nation’s electronic system, although these reports are typically discarded.
In 2012, a hacker alleged to an audience at the Society of Engineers and Architects of Rio de Janeiro that he had rigged that year’s local elections by intercepting data fed into the vote counting system. He modified the results in the computer of the regional electoral tribunal in order to favor some candidates without the fraud being detected….