#remember when a GOP congresswoman used the speed of our vote counting to cast doubt on the results

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil Counted All Its Votes in Hours. It Still Faces Fraud Claims.

A report from the military found no voter fraud — but left room for Bolsonaro’s supporters to argue maybe he’d actually won.

Nearly two weeks after Brazil’s presidential election, government officials and independent security experts have reviewed the results and made a clear determination: There is no credible evidence of voter fraud.

Yet Brazil still finds itself grappling with a wave of rigged-election claims from many supporters of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.

On Wednesday, those baseless claims received new fuel from a highly anticipated report on the voting process from Brazil’s military, which the head of Mr. Bolsonaro’s party said would determine whether the party officially accepted the election’s results.

In the report, the military said it found no evidence of any irregularities. It also said that the nature of Brazil’s fully digital voting system meant it could not decisively rule out a specific fraud scenario.

Independent security experts generally applauded the report, saying it was technically sound. They had pointed out the same hypothetical fraud scenario in the past — government insiders inserting sophisticated malicious software onto Brazil’s voting machines — while also stressing that it was extremely unlikely.

However, to many of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters, including some prominent conservative pundits, the report was further evidence the president’s loss should be questioned.

Brazil finds itself in a tricky situation. Security experts say its electronic voting system is reliable, efficient and, like any digital system, not 100 percent secure. Now politically motivated actors are using that kernel of truth as reason to question the results of a vote in which there is no evidence of fraud.

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