I got this from another list. I have interpolated
some comments in [[brackets - avfm]]
Alberto Monteiro
---
By LARRY ROHTER
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 29 - Brazil's two elections this month had all
the ingredients to be slow and messy. This country is larger than the
continental United States, with millions living in remote jungle and
rural areas.
While one of every seven people is illiterate, voting is obligatory
and every office from president down to state representative was on
the ballot.
[[voting is _not_ obligatory for the illiterate. And we had to
vote for 1 President, 1 Governor, 2 Senators, 1 "Deputado
Federal" [national congressman] and 1 "Deputado Estadual"
[state congressman]. -- avfm]]
Yet less than 10 hours after the polls closed on Oct. 6, and again in
last Sunday's presidential runoff vote, all of the more than 90
million votes cast had been tabulated.
There was no muss, no fuss and no hanging chads, thanks largely to a
new computerized voting system that experts describe as perhaps the
most advanced and efficient in the world.
"Certainly Brazil is way ahead of the United States right now in
terms
both of the technology and administration of the election process,"
said Robert Pastor, director of the Center for Democracy and Election
Management at American University in Washington. "Even with the
passage of a new election law that is a quantum leap for the United
States, it is going to take us about five years to get to where
Brazil
was a couple of years ago."
The heart of the Brazilian system is a plain $420 computer with a
keyboard much like that of an automatic teller machine. Voters punch
in the number of the candidate they want to vote for, wait for the
candidate's picture and name to appear on the screen, confirm their
choice or correct any error by pressing another button, and then move
on to the next office on the list.
[[there is also a key to vote "blank", or we can enter
an invalid number and vote "null" -- avfm]]
Brazilian officials said the new system also makes tallying the vote
easier and more reliable once the polls have closed. Instead of
relying on election judges who are vulnerable to error or political
pressures, the results are transmitted on a secure line to the state
capital and then to a national center in Bras�lia.
Fears that the system would be vulnerable to fraud appear to have
been
unfounded.
"From what I saw, the security of the system is outstanding," said
Anton E. Reel, a United States Federal Election Commission official
whom the Brazilian government invited as an observer. "I don't know
how much more they can do to make sure the data is transmitted
accurately and quickly."
Officials were also heartened by statistics indicating that the
number
of blank and spoiled ballots fell by nearly half, from 18.7 percent
in
the 1998 general election to 10.7 percent in the first round of
voting. That decline is attributed to the clarity of the system,
which
makes it impossible to vote twice for the same office or otherwise
accidentally invalidate a ballot, one of the main problems that
emerged during the 2000 presidential election in Florida.
Though Brazil's tropical climate is harsh and many polling places are
out of doors, the computerized system's breakdown rate on Oct. 6 was
only 1.47 percent, or fewer than 5,000 of some 325,000 machines. That
was significantly below the American rate for manual machines.
[[harsh climate? Heck, can it be better than go to vote
among girls with bikinis? -- avfm]]
Brazilian officials said they expected the new system to generate big
cost savings. This year's first-round vote required about 2.5 million
days of labor, they estimated, compared with up to 45 million days in
the past.
[N Y Times]
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