(a brazilian electronic ballot box in use- it can't be seen perfectly at this photo, but there's a LCD that displays the picture/photo of the candidate when the voter introduces the correspondent numbers of a candidate - There are 480,000 machines as this in use in Brazil)

The electronic ballot boxes to be used in the election of 2008, which chooses the new mayors and councillors from all over Brazil, inaugurate the use of Linux operating system, and in three counties selected for testing, the use of biometrics for identification of voter.

 The initiatives are part of the strategy of the Electoral Superior Court (TSE) “to improve the security and the transparency of the process”, according to Giuseppe Dutra Janino, secretary of technology of the information of the TSE.

 According to Janino, in interview to Reuters, “it has some campaigns in the direction to stain this process”, but, in the 12 years where Brazil if uses of electronic ballot boxes, “no fraud was proven”, affirmed.

 The decision to substitute the operational systems VirtuOS and Windows CE for the Linux in 100 percent of the 480 a thousand ballot boxes of the country will have three advantages, in accordance with the secretary.

 “One of them is the economy”, according to it, since the government agency will not have more than to buy licenses of the old systems proprietors.

 He recognizes that softwares were necessary to be developed in order to use the the Linux system, but standes out that “the cost of the paid development is by far under the costs of the Windows licenses”.

 The cycle of contract of new ballot boxes (buying new ones) is of two years, in accordance with the demographic growth. Brazil has 130 million voters currently, number that on average grows 6 percent per each two years, according to the executive.

 Another advantage of the choice of the Linux, according to Janino, “is the transparency of the process”. According to him, with the old systems proprietors, the TSE (Brazilian Electoral Court) had difficulty in opening the codes of programming of the ballot boxes to entities as the Bar Association of Brazil (OAB) and the political parties.

 From 180 days of each election, the TSE opens all the lines of codes for these electronic ballot boxes, to certify its legitimacy, before the ballot boxes are sealed up digitally.

 The third advantage, in accordance with the secretary, is the security. “Software (Linux) is robust and admittedly safe”, it affirmed Janino.

 Another technological innovation of the electoral process of this year will be the presence of a external auditorship. In all election, a commission commanded for the judge of the electoral court chooses some ballot boxes to follow its performance in the day of the election.

  In this year, however, the process, that already counts on cameras that film the operation of the ballot box, also will have the presence of the auditorship Moreira and Associados, selected to follow the process.

  Brazil has 27 regional electoral districts and, in each one of them, four ballot boxes are drafted for the auditorship, as Janino explained.

 FINGERPRINT

 In another initiative to guarantee the security of the process, the TSE will implant the biometric identification of the voter in three cities, as part of a test.

 “As we eliminate the intervention of human beings in the verifications, we extend the credibility of the process”, affirmed Janino.

 The biometry is characterized for identifying the user through some unique characteristic of his/her body. The TSE will make, in this test, identification by the fingerprint, but the system is also able to identify the voters by the face.

 In this year, the cities of Fátima of Sul (MS), João Baptista (SC) and Colorado of Oeste (RO), that together concentrate around 45 thousand voters, will be the first ones to adopt the byometric identification .

 “We eliminate the possibility of a voter to vote in the name of another person”, said Janino, and beyond that, the identification process is in charge of the proper voter, and no more of a member of the electoral court.

 Janino explains that board members and voters already had passed for simulated in these regions. “The digital culture were already spread in these three cities”, said it.

 The secretary explains that, since 2006, all the acquired ballot boxes are equipped to allow the biometric identification. Therefore, in accordance with the rhythm of renewal of the equipments, he esteems that “in a period of five the ten years” the resource will be extended for all the country.