Justice

Over 138 thousand new voting machines delivered for 2024 elections

In this administration, the electoral court has heard 3,498 cases

Felipe Pontes

Published on 19/12/2023 - 13:38

Brasília

Técnicos do TRE-DF realizam a conferência e a lacração de urnas eletrônicas para o 1º turno das Eleições 2022. — © Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil

The head of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, Judge Alexandre de Moraes, said in Brasília today (Dec. 19) that 138,403 new voting machines have been produced and delivered to the country’s regional electoral courts for use in the 2024 municipal elections.

This amount of machines is equivalent to 64 percent of all the new units to be used in next year’s elections, Judge Moraes noted. The data were presented during the closing ceremony of the judicial year.

The judge also mentioned key rulings made this year, which, he said, established “theses to be followed” on how the Electoral Court should deal with certain issues in next year’s elections for mayors and state deputies.

One of the highlights concerned fraud in affirmative action for gender equality. Throughout the year, the Superior Electoral Court ruled on at least 60 cases on the subject, setting strict criteria for examining women’s campaigns that are fake, for instance.

Gender representation

In these decisions, the court laid down “the necessary guidelines for strict compliance with the gender quota so that we can guarantee an equal election in every election,” Judge Moraes stated.

He cited the judgment in which the Superior Electoral Tribunal determined criteria for the use of public buildings and official symbols in election-related live broadcasts online. The court settled “the limits to be accepted by the Electoral Justice, and which hypotheses should generate sanctions so there is no imbalance in the elections.”

Figures

Since the beginning of Judge Moraes’s term as head of the court, in August 2022, 3,498 cases have been heard, he pointed out. In this non-election year, 1,957 cases were registered in 162 trial sessions, 120 of which in person and 42 online.

In 2023, the Electoral Court returned to the public coffers BRL 250 million that had been earmarked in its budget and not used. “We were economical enough to meet all the budget lines and still have money left over,” he concluded saying.