Brasília – The Regional Electoral Court from Brazil’s Federal District (TRE-DF in the Portuguese acronym) is preparing and sealing voting machines this Friday (12th) and Saturday (13th) to be used in the casting of ballots abroad. A total of 919 voting machines will be sent to 134 locations in 96 countries.
The voting process abroad is organized by the TRE-DF, with the support of consulates or diplomatic missions from each country. “We enter the data of the voters of each location, of the candidates for president, we register the voting machines, run all the tests and pack them. The audit team checks them, the voting machine is stored and remains on standby for the transportation company,” explained the chief of the Section of Support to the Elections, Andrey Bernardes.
The transportation is managed by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations and the voting machines are sent with a system set for the two rounds of the election. All the security procedures follow the same standards applied in Brazil, both for transportation and for the election day, according to Bernardes.
He said shipment to three places had to be cancelled due to logistic difficulties in countries in conflict in Middle East and public health problems, as is the case with the ebola outbreak in East Africa.
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
