In 1994, during a tennis match in Brasília, former minister of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) Carlos Velloso was talking casually with his friend Paulo Camarão, a computer technician.
They didn't know it yet, but something would emerge from this conversation that would revolutionize the entire Brazilian electoral process and, today, is one of the greatest symbols of our democracy: the electronic ballot box.
To g1, Paulo Camarão, now 84 years old, told interesting facts about the creation of the machine that was designed specifically for Brazil.
"The electronic ballot box was called by Minister Carlos Velloso 'tupiniquim', that is, an essentially Brazilian ballot box. Because we traveled halfway around the world looking for solutions that could have already been developed, but none of them applied to Brazilian needs", recalls Paulo.
Thus, the saga to create the equipment began. At the time, Paulo Camarão was appointed Information Technology Secretary at the TSE and began heading the teams that would develop the equipment.
The group was made up of engineers and researchers from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) and the Aerospace Technical Center (CTA).
The technicians who developed the urn were called "the ninjas". They were: Paulo Nakaya, Mauro Hashioka, Antônio Ésio Salgado, Oswaldo Catsumi and Giuseppe Janino – all led by Paulo Camarão.
Paulo remembers that, in the meetings, requirements were established that the ballot box should meet.
One of the requirements was the numeric keyboard -- which, at first, met with resistance from politicians.
"The candidate's mark is often his name, and he would have to abandon his name a little to be able to fix his vote on the number. But we work with Congress all the time, and we managed to pass this requirement", he says.
Another important factor: the voter should first see their choice on the ballot box screen and only then confirm their vote.
"A total of 22 requirements were established, which served as the basis for the entire technical development of the electronic voting machine", says Paulo.
The mission was to create a machine capable of operating in the most diverse conditions of a continental country. To do this, the equipment needed:
work without an internet connection or any other network.
have its own battery, so as not to depend on the electricity supply.
be resistant and easy to transport – since you would have to cross the country, travel by boat and reach remote locations, such as indigenous villages (which still happens today);
and, above all, be simple to use.
According to the TSE, the result was a success. The electronic voting machine combined a screen, keyboard and CPU into a single machine.
With a keyboard similar to that of a telephone, the electronic voting machine made it possible for illiterate or visually impaired people, for example, to interact with the new device without difficulty.
In 1996, it was possible to collect and total the votes of more than 32 million Brazilians – a third of the electorate at the time. More than 70 thousand electronic voting machines were produced for those elections.
"The adoption of the electronic voting machine was Brazil's successful response to removing paper ballots from the electoral system, which, for decades, were vulnerable to fraud. The equipment reinforced social awareness that a representative democracy is legitimized by the sovereign will of the people, through the vote duly collected and counted in clean elections, without suspicion", says the TSE.
The electronic voting machine turned 30 years old in May this year.
On May 13, 1996, the first computerized voting boxes were sent by the TSE to the states, representing a milestone in democracy.
"This project, after 30 years, is still there. Improved, without a doubt, with each election. And surviving all the criticism and the bad intention, sometimes, of wanting to overthrow it", says Paulo Camarão.
See below the main technological advances in electronic voting machines over these 30 years, according to the TSE:
Security: inclusion of a unique security architecture in the world, which allows the ballot box to only work with authentic systems and such systems to only work on the ballot box, in addition to the use of advanced encryption, more resistant physical seals, among other items.
Transparency: various mechanisms and possibilities for evaluating the integrity and suitability of voting and counting, as well as totaling votes.
Biometrics: since 2008, biometrics (identification through fingerprints) has been gradually expanded, helping poll workers to validate the identity of voters.
Accessibility: resources were introduced and improved for people with visual and hearing impairments, such as headphones, voice synthesizer, keyboard with Braille signage (since the original UE96), as well as the use of a Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) interpreter on the ballot box screen.
Efficiency: the succession of new models has made the electoral process more agile, reducing the time it takes for voters to qualify to vote at polling stations.
Sustainability: the equipment began to consume less energy and was designed to be more durable and easily recycled, contributing to the preservation of the environment.
