SECURITY IN THE ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM
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Operation - The "internal" operation of the electronic ballot box is realized by an operating system and exclusive applications of the Electoral Justice. Those applications work only on the day of the elections and only after 7 a.m. The executable codes of the system are generated by source codes in the Superior Electoral Court. As the executable codes are authenticated and installed in a controlled way, all of the operational events are registered, so that any detection of violation or alteration on the executable code makes the ballot box stop working.
For data storage, the electronic ballot box has three elements of memory: two memory cards, called flash cards (internal and external), besides a diskette. Hence, it is possible to recover the data from a particular ballot box even if it is damaged.
Preparing the electronic ballot box for voting - With an anticipation of 180 days to the date of the elections, the political parties and scientific organizations hired by them, the Brazilian Bar Association (in Portuguese Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil [OAB]), the Public Prosecution and any citizen accredited to the Electoral Justice are granted access to analyze the software of the electronic ballot box, in an environment controlled by the Superior Electoral Court. Once these agents have checked the integrity and security of the programs, they digitally sign them, together with the Electoral Justice. Through the digital signature it is possible to confirm the authenticity and integrity of the software inserted into the ballot boxes at any moment, before, during and after the elections.
Once all the requests of candidacy registration have been judged, the regional electoral courts, according to an established plan, command the generation of lists (the candidates' list and the voters' one), memory cards and diskettes, with specific information for the elections. The political parties and scientific organizations hired by them, the Brazilian Bar Association, the Public Prosecution and any citizen accredited to the regional courts can watch this process.
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