This check was made by journalists from the coalition of Check🇧🇷 Learn more about our partnership here🇧🇷

Content studied🇧🇷 four videos circulating on social media show voters attempting to access voting data from their respective polling stations on the TSE website. However, the number of any of the sections does not appear on the platform. The cases concern two voters who voted abroad (in Toronto, Canada, and Miami, USA) and two who voted in Brazil (in Colíder, Mato Grosso, and Passos, Minas Gerais). In the videos, citizens claim that the votes were not counted and therefore there was fraud in the election.

where it was published: ICT Tac.

Completion of proof: It is misleading that votes at polling stations abroad and in Brazil were not counted, indicating suspected fraud at the polls, in this year’s elections.

According to the TSE, the sections of people who appear in the videos posted on social media were, in fact, aggregated with others and, therefore, do not appear in the way they were searched. Still according to the Court, the aggregation took place in more than a thousand polling stations located abroad.

The TSE also reported that polling station aggregation is a method used by the Electoral Tribunal to optimize polling stations with few voters, especially abroad, in order to reduce operating costs.

misleading🇧🇷 for Comprova, it is any content extracted from the original context and used in another so that its meaning undergoes changes; that uses inaccurate data or that leads to a different interpretation of the author’s intention; confusing content, with or without deliberate intent to harm.

Publication scope: Comprova investigates suspicious content with the widest social media reach. As of November 10, the post had 29,800 views, 3,904 likes and 177 comments.

What does the editor say?: Via TikTok, Comprova attempted to contact ‘Alex Bolsonaro’, head of the profile that posted the video of the alleged fraud at the polling station in Toronto, Canada. However, the social network only allows the exchange of messages between accounts that follow each other.

Comprova has also made contact, through a direct message on Instagram, with Ana Roberta, who published the video indicating alleged fraud in the votes of an electoral section of the municipality of Colíder, Mato Grosso, and until the last update update of this publication, he had no response.

The Comprova team could not contact the authors of the videos reporting alleged fraud in electronic voting machines in Miami (USA) and in the city of Passos (MG).

How do we check: We began the verification by searching Google for information on complaints from voters that their votes had not been counted in sections in Brazil and abroad. We found news in some communication vehicles, like the Status checka Reuters and the control agency to the facts🇧🇷 There are complaints in the city of Colíder, in Mato Grosso and in the state of Minas Gerais de Passos. Brazilians living in the United States and Canada also doubted the vote count.

We contacted the Regional Electoral Court of Minas Gerais (TRE-MG), that of Mato Grosso (TRE-MT) and that of the Federal District (TRE-DF), competent to vote abroad. We also question the TSE.

section aggregation

according IS🇧🇷 polling stations and votes cast in electronic voting machines have not disappeared. What really happened is that the sections in which these people vote were aggregated with others. In this election, the situation occurred in 24,163 polling stations in Brazil and in more than a thousand polling stations abroad.

According to clarifications from the technical area of ​​​​the TSE, both the website and the application Results only display information about the main sections. Therefore, the assertion that the votes of registrants and other voters voting in the same ballot box were not counted is misleading.

The organization also explained that the aggregation of sections by electoral zones is a common and planned practice in election standardto reduce operating costs by uniting polling stations with few voters.

The Regional Electoral Courts (TRE) can determine the grouping of the sections aimed at rationalizing the electoral work, provided that this does not prejudice the exercise of the vote.

Information about aggregated sections and other situations (such as compromise sections) can be looked up in the election statistics and not TSE Open Data Portalin the electorate by polling station calculation sheet.

The votes in Brazil have been calculated

Two of the videos investigated were recorded by Brazilians residing in Passos, Minas Gerais and Colíder, Mato Grosso, who claim their votes were not counted. However, sections 0292, by Passos, and 0036, by Colíder, have been added to others.

Asked, TRE-MG informs that the section has registered the votes with those of section 0316. clarifying note published on November 7, the agency reported that section 0292 was working in CEMEI Coimbras and that the aggregation was already in effect in the first round of the election.

🇧🇷 Image of printed ballot box, highlighting information on aggregated sections. Image: TRE-MG.

According to TRE-MG, 33 other electoral sections of Passos were added during these elections. In total, Section 0316 registered 175 eligible voters, of whom 138 were present. There were 99 votes for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and 34 for Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

🇧🇷 Image from TSE website with ballot box data in section 0316, Passos.

In Colíder, Mato Grosso, the electoral section of the author of the video, 0036, was incorporated into 0034. Ordinance number 015/2022 published in the Official Gazette on August 4 formalized the aggregation of 19 sections in the state.

In total, Section 0034 registered 328 eligible voters, of whom 238 were present. There were 55 votes for Lula and 181 for Bolsonaro.

🇧🇷 Image from TSE website with data from ballot box 0034, in Colíder.

The votes abroad have been counted

As for videos recorded by residents in Canada and the United States, Toronto Section 1212 and Miami Section 3345 have been added to others, as stated by the TSE.

In the case of Toronto, the section the author of the video would vote for, 1212, was merged into 1031. IS Datain the second round of elections, the Canadian city recorded 9,704 votes, of which 9,299 were valid, 239 were invalid and 166 were white.

Of the total, Lula got 5,188 votes (55.79%), while Bolsonaro got 4,111 (44.21%).

In Canada, according to G1 report, Lula won with 61.61% of the vote (13,181 votes) and Bolsonaro obtained 38.39% (8,213 votes). The country has the fourth largest electorate in Brazil outside the national territory, with 38,988 voters. Of this number, 22,473 (57.64%) took part in the second round, which took place in 53 polling stations in four Canadian cities.

In total, Section 1031 registered 780 eligible voters, of whom 403 were in attendance. There were 181 votes for Lula and 206 for Bolsonaro.

🇧🇷 Image from the TSE website with data from the Section 1031 ballot box in Toronto.

In the case of Miami, section 3345, present in the voter registration of the author of the video, was added to section 1346, who worked at Valencia College West Campus, in Orlando. According to the TRE of the Federal District, all 396 voters out of 3345 voted with the 399 voters out of 1346.

“The number of votes in the section can be verified by the respective ballot box printed at the end of the vote, as well as the attendance records in the appropriate voting books signed by the voters voting,” informed the TRE, in a note. .

In total, Section 1346 registered 792 eligible voters, of whom 538 were present. There were 80 votes for Lula and 452 for Bolsonaro.

🇧🇷 Image from TSE website with Miami Section 1346 ballot box data.

According IS Data, in the second round of elections, Miami registered 16,732 votes, of which 16,245 were valid, 259 null and 228 white. Of the total, Lula had 3,058 votes (18.82%) while Bolsonaro had 13,187 (81.18%).

In the United States, according to G1 report, Bolsonaro won with 65.48% of the vote (44,654 votes) and Lula obtained 34.52% (23,542 votes). The country has the largest electorate in Brazil outside the national territory, with 182,653 voters. Of these, 70,429 (38.56%) participated in the second round ballot, which took place in 260 polling stations in ten North American cities.

Election data abroad

In the 2022 elections, more than 697,000 Brazilian voters living abroad were eligible to vote, representing 0.45% of the total electorate. In the first round, the TSE recorded 304,032 votes. At the time, former President Lula found himself at the top of the competition, with 47.39% of the valid votes, which represents 138,933 of the total votes. President Jair Bolsonaro collected 122,500 votes, which corresponds to 41.6%.

In the second round, there was an increase in the number of voting Brazilian immigrants, reaching 310,148. Lula came out on top in the final count, with 152,905 votes (51.28%), against 145,264 (48.72% ) for Bolsonaro.

All immigrant voting is organized in the so-called “Electoral Zone ZZ”. Over the past four years, the number of voters living outside Brazil has increased from 500,727 in 2018 to 697,078 currently, representing an increase of 39.21%.

According to the TSE, overseas voting had 2,197 polling stations, spread across 181 foreign cities. Polling stations abroad are open when the regional consular office registers at least 30 voters.

why do we investigate: Comprova investigates suspicious content going viral on social media regarding the pandemic, federal government public policy, and presidential elections. Right now, content containing misinformation about the current or elected president can disrupt democracy.

Other checks on the subject: At least three media have performed the same check. O Status check and the Reuters released the case of the Miami voter. The control agency to the facts investigated the questioning of a voter in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, who said her vote had not been counted.

In other checks on the voting system and elections, Comprova showed that American journalist failed to prove Biden’s influence in Brazilian electionsWhat the message that attributes to Arthur Lira the conduct of the pilgrims to Juazeiro to provoke abstention in the 2nd round is false is it is a fake arrest warrant in flagrante delicto against STF Minister Alexandre de Moraes after the elections🇧🇷