Did the delay result from fraud? TSE denies fake news about pause in results

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) on Tuesday denied publications that associate the pause in the disclosure of the results of the presidential election with an alleged fraud. According to the court, the interruption of approximately 50 minutes occurred in the update of the national scoreboard on the internet and did not compromise the votes registered in the polls.

The problem occurred on Sunday night (4), during the disclosure of the results of the first round. According to the TSE, an increase in the volume of information caused a containment in the processing of data around 7:14 p.m., when 64.81% of the data had already been disclosed. The update was normalized at 20:04.

What stopped during the disclosure?

According to the clarification, the failure only reached the module that presents the national visualization of the presidential dispute, identified as “Brazil”. The results by state continued to be published, according to the Court.

Therefore, the interruption occurred after the closure of the vote and affected the presentation of the national scoreboard to the public. The TSE states that the results recorded by the polls have remained preserved.

The explanation was released after the circulation of videos and publications on social networks that pointed to the pause as an indication of manipulation. The court classified this allegation as false.

Was counting and totaling affected?

The TSE reported that the counting, carried out by the electronic ballot boxes in each electoral section, was not reached by the failure. The totalization, a step that adds up to the results of the ballot boxes, followed normally, with the exception of a brief suspension for the execution of a security protocol.

This procedure provides for the individual verification of the systems in the event of a technical occurrence. According to the court, the ballot boxes continued to be broadcast, received, processed and published on the internet during the episode. Monitoring systems also remained in place.

Court Investigates Case and Prepares Adjustment

The Information Technology Secretariat of TSE began the technical studies on Sunday evening to identify the causes of the shutdown. A new routine is being developed to prevent the problem from repeating in the second round.

The president of the TSE, Minister Kassio Nunes Marques, had already attributed the delay to a congestion caused by a flow of data higher than normal. According to him, the technical team checked the systems and found the increase in the volume of information.

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On possible foreign interference, the minister stated that the sectors of the court did not issue warnings in this regard and that no intervention was found after the end of the vote.