The rapporteur of the resolutions brought rules for public checking at the beginning and closing of the 2026 polling stations
Minister Nunes Marques, of the Federal Supreme Court, assumes the presidency of the Superior Electoral Court this Tuesday (May 12, 2026). In February, the magistrate was the rapporteur of the resolutions that established the electoral rules for 2026, which reinforced the procedures for inspecting and monitoring the ballot boxes during the voting process.
With the resolutions, the TSE detailed, for example, the rule of double checking ballot boxes on voting days. The standard better defines a practice that is already common in other elections: the presentation of documents that certify, for the first and last voters, that the ballot boxes were not tampered with and that the votes were counted correctly.
In practice, the first 2 voters in each section are invited to attend the issuance of the Zeresmootha printed document that certifies that no vote was cast in the electronic ballot box before the start of the election. The 2026 resolutions establish that, although registration is done by the poll worker, voters can actively participate in the process and, in case of refusal of inspection, the fact must be recorded in the minutes. To the complete of election resolutions can be .
A similar procedure takes place at the end of voting. The poll worker summons the last 2 voters to monitor the closing of the polling station. These voters will be able to have access to a ballot box –document that shows the automatic counting, with the sum of the votes for each candidate cast in that specific section.
With double checking the objective is to clarify and provide greater transparency for the vote counting process. However, the public disclosure of the ballot box and the zerésima is already a practice in elections, including in 2022, when (PT) defeated the then president (PL).
What’s new is that the 2026 resolutions detail the step-by-step process to allow the first 2 and last 2 voters to follow the process.
QUESTIONING THE BALLOTS
The last general election, in 2022, was marked by campaigns that spoke of possible flaws and irregularities in the voting process. In 2023, Bolsonaro was condemned by the TSE for abuse of political power by reproducing to ambassadors allegations that questioned the validity of the ballot boxes.
The STF, in 2025, when it condemned the former president for an attempted coup d’état, recognized that there was a campaign to discredit the Electoral Court and the polls with the aim of promoting a plan of institutional rupture.
NEW COMPOSITION OF THE TSE
Nunes Marques will lead the general elections, while minister André Mendonça assumes the vice-presidency.
Here is the new composition of the TSE:
- Nunes Marques (STF), in the presidency;
- André Mendonça (STF), in the vice-presidency;
- Dias Toffoli (STF);
- Antonio Carlos Ferreira (STJ), general inspector of the Electoral Court;
- Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva (STJ);
- Floriano de Azevedo Marques (law);
- Estela Aranha (lawyer).
Nunes Marques succeeds minister Cármen Lúcia, who has been heading the TSE since June 2024.
Profile and trajectory
With a low profile, Nunes Marques was nominated to the STF by former president Jair Bolsonaro in October 2020 – still during the covid-19 pandemic – in the vacancy opened by the retirement of Celso de Mello. At the time, the nominee was a 2nd degree judge of the TRF-1 (Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region), with good dialogue with politicians and ministers of the Superior Court of Justice and the Supreme Court.
