The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) announced, on Thursday night (14), that researchers from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP) will test the security level of the most recent electronic voting machines acquired by the Electoral Justice.
The evaluation of the UE 2020 models should take place until next month. According to the TSE, the researchers will try to break secrecy and change the destination of votes, in addition to simulating possible forms of attack on the programs (software) and equipment (hardware) that make up the electoral system.
Also according to the Court, the inspection action will be similar to that to which the UE 2015 models were already submitted – previous version of the equipment that was exposed to the onslaughts of the specialists who participated in the last Public Security Test (TPS) of the electronic voting system. .
The TSE informed, through a note, that the testing of samples of the EU 2020 models was one of the suggestions made by bodies and entities that make up the Commission for the Transparency of Elections (CTE). The note does not name the body that authored the proposal, but in another communiqué released hours earlier to detail the referral given to all the suggestions already made to the commission, the Court informs that the inclusion of samples of the new equipment in the TPS was made by General Heber Garcia Portella, representative of the Armed Forces.
Yesterday (14), by participating in a public hearing held by the Senate Oversight and Control Committee, Defense Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira said that submitting samples of the new electronic voting machines to the Public Security Test is one of three initiatives that the Armed Forces consider “essential” to reduce “all the pressure, all the discussion” technical and political. around the security of the electoral system. “These are plausible and feasible proposals that are not out of this world,” said the minister.
In the details released hours after the public hearing, the TSE informed that the proposal can only be partially accepted. The reason is “the tight deadline between the completion of the integration of the voting system with the EU2020 and the ceremony of digital signature and sealing of electoral systems, scheduled for the last week of August this year”.
According to the TSE, the UE 2020 models were not tested before because they started to be delivered from December 2021, when the testing schedule was already underway.
“In the event [TPS]equipment already assembled is tested, which has the software fully developed and tested by the Electoral Justice”, informed the Court, assuring that, even so, “all models of ballot boxes have the same programs, which undergo audits before, during and after the elections”.
To partially comply with the Army’s recommendation, the court said it had made an “adjustment” to the work plan as a result of the agreement it signed with USP in October 2021 so that the educational institution “collaborates with the Electoral Justice to improve the integrity and the reliability of electronic voting”.
According to the TSE, more than 70% of the suggestions presented to the CTE were accepted and will be put into practice in this year’s elections.
