Voters who do not feel represented by the candidates who will present themselves in the second round of the municipal elections will be able to vote blank or invalid on Sunday 27th. The choices will not influence the results, since the Electoral Tribunal only counts valid votes, i.e. those cast. to one of the two candidates in dispute.
If blank or invalid votes don’t affect the results, where do they go? In practice these votes are recorded only for statistical purposes.
For example, in the first round of Sao Paulo, which took place on the 6th, 241,734 blank votes were cast (3.57% of the voters who went to the polls) and 422,802 invalid votes (6.24% of the voters who went to the polls). went to the polls). Overall, 664,536 São Paulo residents voted in these two ways.
The two percentages did not enter into the calculation that defined the need for a run-off between the current mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB) and the federal deputy Guilherme Boulos (PSOL).
Although they do not interfere with the counting, the statistics show that more voters did not choose one of the candidates than those who voted for seven of the 10 mayoral candidates, namely: Tabata Amaral (PSB, with 605,552 votes); José Luiz Datena (PSDB, with 112,344 votes); Marina Helena (New, with 84,212 votes), Ricardo Senese (UP, with 84,212 votes); Altino Prazeres (PSTU, with 3,017 votes); João Pimenta (PCO, with 960 votes) and Bebeto Haddad (DC, with 833 votes).
Can more than half of blank or invalid votes nullify an election?
Blank or invalid ballots cannot prevent the victory of the candidate with the highest number of valid votes. In other words, even if more than 50% of voters vote this way, the election will not be canceled.
During elections, rumors about the annulment of elections in the event of a majority of blank or invalid votes tend to grow stronger. This is due to a misinterpretation of article 224 of the Electoral Code, which establishes that “if the nullity reaches more than half of the country’s votes in the presidential elections”, new elections must be called within a maximum period of 40 days.
In fact, the article does not address invalid votes. The legislation refers to situations of fraud that can lead to the annulment of votes given to a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic. For example, if an elected candidate were tried and convicted of an electoral crime, valid votes would be nullified by the TSE. In this situation, a new election is called.
Another rumor that circulates during election periods is that blank ballots are transferred to the winning candidate. This is because, before the 1988 Constitution, these votes were considered valid for calculating the electoral quotient in proportional elections (which elect federal and state councilors and deputies).
How to vote blank or void?
To vote blank, the voter must press the “blank” button when the mayoral candidate option appears on the ballot box screen. Then, he must press the “confirm” button.
In case of invalid votes, the participant must enter random numbers that do not correspond to a candidate in dispute, for example the number “00”. The ballot box screen will show that the choice will result in an invalid vote and it is up to the voter to confirm the decision.
In Sao Paulo, 48.1 thousand voters voted “13” in choosing the mayoral candidate and their vote was cancelled. The number is the one that identifies the candidates of the Workers’ Party (PT), which has decided to support Boulos in this year’s elections. The number of federal deputies is 50.
Source: Terra
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