The elections are highly anticipated and important to decide the course of the country's future and, for them to take place, it is necessary to ensure that the main voting instrument, the electronic ballot boxes, are present in all polling places for 156,5 million voters. The logistics that allow for the transport of all equipment to the nearly 497 polling stations, distributed among 94 polling places, 2,6 zones, in 5.570 municipalities in Brazil and 181 polling places abroad are complex.
The acquisition of new ballot boxes, voting booths and other inputs is the responsibility of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which in the year before the election consults each regional office on the demand for new equipment. In addition to purchasing, the TSE is responsible for controlling the supply, relocation and replacement of machines across the country, centrally, to ensure process systematization and reliability.
The ballot boxes are transported directly to the regional courts after they are manufactured. Each Regional Court manages its stock of supplies and manages the distribution of ballot boxes and booths to the precincts in each state, according to their needs. Brazil has more than 1.100 ballot storage locations.
According to Rafael Azevedo, coordinator of Electoral Technology at the Superior Electoral Court, some Federal Units choose a central point for storing ballot boxes. On the other hand, there are UFs that work in the decentralized model, in which the machines are stored either in deposits called poles, or in the electoral registers themselves.
In addition to the need to replace ballot boxes at the end of 10 to 12 years of life cycle, the Electoral Justice also needs to meet the growth of the electorate, which is approximately 5% at each election, over a period of two years. The Electoral Justice has around 577 electronic voting machines for the 2022 elections, stored in the regional electoral courts and in the TSE, in air-conditioned environments and on wooden pallets.
The so-called technical reserve, which has around 15 ballot boxes, is kept at the TSE headquarters building, in Brasília, in a warehouse measuring 2.580 square meters and with the possibility of tripling the capacity, which also has an air-conditioned environment to preserve the devices, and with docks that are capable of receiving trucks and larger vehicles, in order to facilitate the transport of equipment in larger quantities.
Furthermore, to ensure that the equipment complies with its complete life cycle, care is needed in storage and transport, so that its operation is not affected by shocks, falls or other external conditions. To this end, cardboard and foam packaging were created to line and pad the box in which the devices are accommodated. Temperature and humidity factors from different regions of the country, storage time, stacking method, type of transport and handling were also considered.
The distribution of electronic voting machines by polling places may differ according to the conveniences and unique characteristics of each Regional Electoral Court (TER) and each electoral zone. Some courts transport the devices on distribution routes, others delegate the task to the section presidents themselves, or to municipal vehicles. In more distant and difficult-to-reach places, the transport of these voting instruments can be done with the help of the armed forces by means of helicopters, planes and boats.
All security along the logistic chain of ballot boxes is very important and makes the operation more costly. The electronic voting machines are blocked for use until they receive the digital certificates from the Electoral Court at the TSE, TRE or at the Electoral Registry. After unlocking and preparation, the ballot boxes are labeled with the city of destination and are taken to the electoral registers a few weeks before the elections and on the eve of the election, the ballot boxes are transported to the polling places. After voting, they are returned to the registry offices by the same company that carried out the transport previously, without the media containing the results. These are forwarded to the places designated for the counting of votes, as soon as the works of the sections are finished.
The activities that take place throughout the electoral process, mainly associated with electronic ballot boxes and voting booths, involve the main logistical activities: purchase of supplies, storage, storage and transport. The need for this process to occur effectively, safely, quickly and; if necessary, that replacements are made as quickly as possible, indicate that the logistics chain for the distribution of electronic ballot boxes in elections is robust, unique and complex, demanding adequate strategy and planning.
References:
– Folha de Pernambuco (23/12/2021) – Electronic ballot box: learn how storage and disposal are done
– TRE-RJ (07/07/2022) – TRE-RJ has the support of PRF and PMERJ to transport ballot boxes
– TRE-RS (11/11/2020) – Electronic voting machines will be transported this Friday and Saturday
– TSE (23/12/2021) – Electronic ballot box: learn how storage and disposal are done
– TSE – election logistics
– TSE – urn deposit
