"Brazil .... seams quite incredible."

It is incredible but also improper to compare their results with those of the US.

First, Brazil is really not a poor, illiterate nation. They have an 85% literacy rate, and measure only 22% below the poverty line. So that position is specious to begin with.

But, a technically inexperienced user base there will have no expectations of a specific performance, i.e. the "poor" voters simply don't recognize any issues as they happened. They did not know what should be happening, so they had no complaints when it did not happen.

Our more technically savvy user base complains when the system performance does not match their expectations. A more sophisticated population complains more.

Next, I suspect that the American elections were far more complex than the Brazilian. I had to vote on 81 separate choices here in Texas. National, State, Local, School District, Utility District, Courts, Propositions, Constitutional Changes, etc... I'm not an expert on Brazilian elections, but from what I can tell, most people had far fewer choices and the districts were much larger. It's a lot easier to manage 10-20 choices in 300-350 districts than 50-100 choices in more than 150,000 precincts around the US.

And of course, cheating in elections seems to be an intramural sport in the US. It's been going on as long as the country exists, and there seems to be little sanction for it. I don't know, but I suspect that it is taken far more seriously in Brazil and other areas that have had experience with dictatorship. They know what they risk.

So I think that comparing Brazil and US is hardly appropriate.

Rich

p.s. Yes, I'm beginning to think that leading an effort to commit vote fraud should be capital crime in the US. It's an non-violent attempt to overthrow the government by nullifying the will of the voters.

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