In order to during the , the (Superior Electoral Court) is considering suspending the possibility of justifying absence through the e-Título application on voting days.
The eventual measure was mentioned by the president of the body, the minister, at a ceremony to present the Assessment Report, this Monday (9).
According to her, the hypothesis is that “only the use of justification on the day” will be prohibited. “It may be that on the day [da eleição] people say that the justification will not be made, it will be made later, even to give the person time to think [se quer mesmo deixar de votar]”, said Carmen.
For the minister, the measure would help prevent people from being encouraged to go to neighboring cities and justify on the app that they are not at the polling place, or from failing to vote because it is raining, for example.
“Voting is a right and a duty. A duty to society, a duty to everyone”, he states. The president of the court, however, denied intending to discuss increasing the fine for absentees in the elections. The value for those who are not going to vote today is R$3.51 per shift.
In this year’s second round, the high abstention rate worried the TSE and entities that monitored the organization of the election in Brazil. Of the 33.9 million voters in the 51 cities that had a dispute on the 27th, more than 9.9 million missed the vote.
The amount is equivalent to 29.26% of the total. It is close to that recorded in the second round of 2020 (29.53%), when the election was held during the Covid-19 pandemic. But it surpasses that of the 2016 municipal election (21.55%).
In the report prepared by the TSE on this year’s election, several hypotheses are highlighted for the abstention numbers.
One of them is that “it interfered with the ease of justifying absence, even through the use of a device made available by , which will have to be revisited considering that voting is mandatory”.
Another point raised by Cármen and the TSE report is not to allow the possibility of changing holidays close to voting days that would lead voters to leave the cities.
“Among the objective factors that contribute to abstention, situations such as traveling to other states, municipalities or even abroad stand out, which prevent voters from attending the polling place”, says the text.
“In this item, the date of the election must be considered, especially in the second round, where there is one, which has been subject to manipulation with a national holiday on the first day of November and an optional point.”
The TSE also expressed concern about abstention among voters over 70 years of age, whose vote is optional. Cármen stated that the organization must carry out campaigns to encourage this public to vote, just as it already does with young voters.
According to TSE data, “the number of voters aged 70 or over has been constantly increasing”. “Between 2012 and 2024, the number of voters in this age group jumped from 10,043,487 to 15,208,667, representing an increase of 51.42%”, says the body’s report.
