BRASÍLIA, July 25 — On the ground at the Superior Electoral Court headquarters, technicians are running final checks on the electronic voting machines that will handle Brazil’s general election in October. Campaign ads blare from televisions in cafes across the capital; candidates for president, governor, and Congress are in the final sprint. But the way Brazilians cast their ballots is no simple matter.
The country’s electoral system, defined by the 1988 Constitution and the Electoral Code of 1965, uses three distinct voting methods to fill executive and legislative seats.
Two-Round System for Executives
For president, state governors, and mayors of municipalities with more than 200,000 voters, Brazil employs a two-round majoritarian system. To win outright in the first round, a candidate must obtain more than 50% of valid votes — blank and spoiled ballots are discarded from the total. If nobody hits that threshold, the top two finishers advance to a runoff.
That second round, typically held a few weeks later, decides the winner by simple majority. In the event of a tie — rare, but possible — the older candidate is declared elected.
This same structure applies to state governors and to mayors in cities of over 200,000 voters, a category that includes São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and dozens of other urban centers where runoff elections are a familiar September ritual. By nightfall on the first Sunday of October, the country will know whether any presidential candidate cleared the 50% mark — or whether the race heads to a late-October showdown.
Residents here describe the two-round system as both a safeguard against fringe winners and a source of prolonged political tension.
Senate: Plurality and Block Voting
The Federal Senate operates on a different track. Each of Brazil’s 26 states plus the Federal District elects three senators for eight-year staggered terms, with elections held every four years. The method depends on how many seats are at stake.
When a single Senate seat is up for election — which happens roughly every eight years per state — first-past-the-post voting applies: the candidate with the most votes wins, even without a majority. When two Senate seats are contested simultaneously, block voting is used: each voter casts two votes, and the two candidates with the highest totals win, again without requiring a majority.
This system, a mix of plurality and majoritarian logic, ensures that Senate representation changes slowly — only one-third of the chamber is renewed every four years, with a different third replaced in the next cycle.
Proportional Representation for Legislature
The Chamber of Deputies, state Legislative Assemblies, and municipal City Councils are elected through open-list proportional representation. Brazil’s version is distinctive: voters cast nominal votes for individual candidates, not just party lists. Each party’s total vote share determines how many seats it receives; then the seats are allocated to the most voted candidates within that party.
Federal elections for the Chamber are conducted separately in each state. Each state is guaranteed a minimum of 8 deputies and a maximum of 70, depending on population.
This system was designed to balance majoritarian executive power with proportional legislative representation in a multi-party context — a deliberate contrast to the winner-take-all approach used for president and governors. The result is a Congress crowded with parties. No single party typically wins a majority outright in the Chamber, forcing presidents into coalition-building from day one.
Critics say the open-list system encourages personal vote-seeking over party discipline; defenders argue it gives voters direct control over which individuals represent them.
The Role of the Superior Electoral Court
The Superior Electoral Court, known by its Portuguese acronym TSE, is the regulatory body empowered by law to oversee and implement all electoral rules. From registering candidates and approving campaign finance to programming the electronic voting machines and certifying results, the TSE acts as the referee. Its seven justices — three drawn from the Supreme Federal Court, two from the Superior Court of Justice, and two from the legal profession — are tasked with ensuring the system runs smoothly.
In past cycles, the court has made headlines for rulings that bar candidates over corruption convictions or that impose new transparency rules on campaign ads. This year, with a polarizing presidential race expected, all eyes are on the TSE’s ability to manage the logistics and adjudicate disputes.
What to watch next: the release of the official candidate registry in August, the start of free airtime for campaign ads on television and radio, and the first round of voting on the first Sunday of October. If no presidential candidate breaks 50% — and recent polls suggest that is the likely scenario — Brazilians will return to the polls four weeks later for a runoff.
The scene on that Saturday night will tell the story: supporters gathered at plazas, television networks projecting results, and the TSE tallying votes well into the night.
Sources
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