ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE IN BRAZIL
Dear readers,
Please read the arcticle below, from the brazilian senate.
I am against this voting-machine, unless that it brings a printing-machine, to have votes conferred by the voter. There is NOT a safe system, at all. The whole world knows it, but NOT the brazilian government!
Paulo Cesar Sampaio
5585 9982 1165 WhatsApp
Skype pcesarsampaio
The electronic voting machine was released in 1996 in order to compute the votes of millions of voters more quickly and safely. Eighteen years later, Brazil celebrates the success of the system, which had no confirmed threat of fraud and was adopted in various countries.
The elections became completely computerized in 2000, and the original design of the voting machine has been updated various times since then. Both the hardware and the various programs that make up the electronic voting system were planned and developed with supervision by the Superior Electoral Court.
The results of the 2010 presidential elections came out at 8:04 PM, setting a new world record for the counting of votes.
In 2009, the court invited over 30 information technology specialists to undertake public safety tests of the electronic voting machine. After four days of attempts, none of them managed to hack the system or bypass the data. In another round of public tests, in 2012, a team from the University of Brasília (UnB) managed to “unwind” the order of the votes recorded by the voting machine, but did not manage to identify the voters.
This Brazilian innovation has been adopted in Ecuador, Paraguay, Argentina, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. In the United States, Mexico and Canada, the electronic voting machine is used, but in some states and provinces, there are specific laws that require printed votes conferred by the voter.
According to the Information Technology Secretary of the TSE, Giuseppe Janino, the computerization of votes in the country is “a successful project”, particularly when it comes to the electoral justice’s commitment in continuously improving the technology and tackling every kind of risk. He understands that “there is always room to move forward”, but that this needs to be done with caution, since the improvements must be made in accordance with security criteria and with the cultural knowledge acquired by the Brazilian citizen.
How it works
The electronic voting machine is a microcomputer specifically designed for the elections: resistant, small, lightweight, with its own energy source and with security resources. The voting machine consists of two terminals: the board member’s terminal, where the voter registers and is authorized to vote, and the voter’s terminal, where the vote is recorded numerically.
The software of the voting machine is a version of the operating system Linux, developed by an authorized company. By means of computer programs, the rules of the voting system are converted into computer language (source code).
Six months prior to the elections, the code is released, so that the political parties, the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and the Public Ministry can scan the system for errors. Representatives from these organizations digitally sign the programs compiled, tested and signed by the TSE.
The final versions of the voting systems are recorded in non-rewritable media types, physically binded and stored in the court’s safe-room. Before the voting round, the data on the electoral precinct and district are loaded, besides the data on the candidates.
After the voting round is finished, the ballot, the digital recording of the votes, the absent voters, the voting justifications and the event logger are recorded. All the files are digitally signed. The ballot and the digital recording of the vote, besides being signed, are ciphered.
