Blank and null votes for the Senate are higher than for president and governor, shows TSE

Considering data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) since the 1998 election, the percentage of blank and invalid votes for the Senate was higher than that recorded in disputes for the Presidency of the Republic and state governments.

🔎 The comparison with the elections for president and governor is because, just like for these positions, a person is only elected to the Senate if they have direct votes – it is the so-called majority election. In other words, votes given only for the party number are not valid.

The last two elections clearly demonstrate this difference. In 2018, the year in which the population was able to vote for two senators per state, 26.9% of voters voted blank or invalid in the choice for the Senate.

In comparison, for governor, 18.57% of voters voted blank or canceled their vote. As for president, only 8.8% made the same choice.

In the following elections, in 2022, the percentage of whites and nulls had the first drop since the 2002 election. They were 18.7% of the total votes.

The race for the Senate is a priority for allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), main competitors in the dispute for the Presidency of the Republic, due to their strategic role in the country's current political moment.

In 2026, 54 seats out of 81 are up for grabs - again two senators will be elected for each state. For the PL, the objective is to obtain a majority to be able to retain the presidency of the Senate and, thus, move forward with requests for impeachment from different ministers of the Supreme Court.

The fact that 54 seats are up for grabs is an element that makes the electoral process difficult. In 2018, for example, many voters carried out the so-called incomplete vote, according to the Senate itself. In other words, he only voted for one senator and not two.

It is also not possible to vote just for the party; You need to know the exact number of the candidate you want to vote for.

If the voter votes for the same candidate in the second vacancy, for example, the second vote will be automatically canceled. Voting only for the party has the same result.