The first round of elections ended with 33 million Brazilians failing to exercise their right to vote. In a fierce election like the presidential one, abstention directly impacts the results: 21.08% of Brazilians stopped voting this year.
The percentage of voters who did not vote is the highest for the first presidential round since the 1998 elections. That year, with the re-election of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC), 21.49% of voters missed the election.
After that, there was a recovery, with more Brazilians going to the polls to choose not only their presidents, but also governors, senators, federal and state deputies.
But in 2018, the percentage of Brazilians who preferred not to exercise their right to vote exceeded 20% and has grown little by little in recent elections.
Voters who do not vote in the first round can vote in the second, since, for the Electoral Court, each round is a new election and, therefore, missing the first round does not prevent the voter from voting in the second.
🔎In Brazil, voting is mandatory for citizens over 18 and literate under 70, according to the Federal Constitution.
The reasons for a voter to fail to attend the so-called "democracy party" are varied. But a mark that permeated this election was the population's discouragement.
For Murilo Medeiros, political scientist at the University of Brasília (UnB), one of the reasons for discouragement is polarization. With the two main candidates, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), with high rejection rates, there is an "atmosphere of dismay" with politics.
"The perception that voting is no longer capable of producing concrete changes encourages voters to stay away from the polls. High abstention is a sign of this distance between politics and voters", says Medeiros.
Among this year's 33 million, g1 heard reports from voters of different ages, professions and contexts. See below:
Bureaucracy and lack of accessibility drive away voters
Roberto Gepp, an economics student, says he would have liked to vote, but ended up not transferring his voter registration card. He moved from Brasília to São Paulo and will also not be able to vote in the second round.
For him, it was a "shame" not to choose his representatives and states that the process of transferring the title removes and bureaucratizes the vote.
🔎The deadline to transfer the voting location ended on May 6th. However, until August 20th, voters who were away from their voting domicile on election day could request a temporary change of polling place to vote in transit.
When faced with many people and an electoral zone that he considered disorganized, Henrique Eduardo Bahouth, 73 years old, gave up voting.
"I never stopped voting. This year, I actually arrived at my voting zone, but it was full of many people, I found it very disorganized and, due to the day, I wasn't feeling well and ended up giving up", he said.
Bianca Dantas was unable to vote due to accessibility issues in the section where she was going to vote. She says that, after undergoing knee surgery two weeks before the first round, she was unable to reach the polling station.
When he arrived at the location and came across two flights of stairs, he had to leave without voting. She explains that she did not have time to request an accessible section.
"How many people stopped voting for this same reason, right? People who suffered accidents, anyway, and that was very frustrating for me, having to turn around, being there at the door and having to turn my back and leave without being able to vote", he asked.
Ceará records the lowest abstention in the country with 15.5% in the 1st round of the 2026 elections. — Photo: Fabiane de Paula/ SVM
Belief in politics
At 73 years old, Maria Luíza Teixeira has the right to stop voting, but claims that she did not go to the polls in the first round because she disagreed with the two presidential candidates, Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro.
To g1, Maria Luíza said that she also does not intend to vote in the second round and that, if she attended the polls, she would cancel her vote.
Discouraged by the policy, public servant Nara Oliveira stated that for her it was not worth spending time and money traveling to the polling place.
Nara cited the case of Banco Master to explain why he believes that politicians only think about their own interests. In her opinion, the election sums up the meaning of the expression “whatever”.
"Anyone who wins will only think about their own interests, and it's not worth me wasting even a second of my life to vote for anyone," he said.
Student Maria Júlia Costa traveled to a city far from the one where she votes during the first round for a family event and said she intends to participate in voting in the second round.
The student also stated that she believes "in politics, in the power of voting and in citizenship".
X-ray of abstention
Abstention of 21.08% this year followed the growth rate of absence in the first round of recent years. In 2022, the second round did not see a movement for more people to go to the polls to choose a president, according to data from the TSE.
Still, getting these voters to reconsider and vote is one of President Lula's communication strategies, who came out at a disadvantage in the first stage of voting. Medeiros indicates that this will be one of the biggest challenges from now on.
"The second round raises an even greater alert for abstention. With 21 state governments defined, the presidential election will be the only dispute in a large part of the country", explains the political scientist.
"This depletes political mobilization in the states, discourages the engagement of local leaders and weakens the campaign structures responsible for taking voters to the polls," said Medeiros.
TSE data show that the highest percentages of voters who stopped voting are from the regions: 15 million voters from the Southeast (22.7%) and 2.6 million from the Central-West (21.7%).
"Increasing turnout, therefore, does not mean increasing Lula's votes. It all depends on the political profile of those who stayed at home," stated Medeiros.
In the Northeast, a region that voted mostly for Lula, 18.4% of voters stopped going to the polls. The contingent represents 8 million voters.
Getting these voters to the polls, however, represents a challenge for campaigns seeking to increase the number of votes.
"Although voting is mandatory in Brazil, the fine for non-attendance is negligible. The cost and difficulties in getting to the polls, especially for lower-income voters, exceed the value of the penalty itself", he explains.
