How Brazil Decides First-Round Winners and Why Blank or Null Votes Don’t Count

Overview

• Election law requires a candidate for president or governor to receive more than half of the votes validly cast to win in the first round, with the total of valid votes defined as only those given to candidates or party lists.
• If no candidate clears that majority, the two top finishers will contest a second round on October 25, 2026, and the winner will be whoever gets the most valid votes in that runoff.
• Blank and null ballots are recorded by the electoral court but are excluded from the pool of valid votes, so a majority of blanks or nulls does not invalidate an election or stop the process of declaring winners.
• Voters register a blank vote on the electronic ballot by pressing the ‘branco’ key and confirming, and register a null vote by entering a number that does not match any candidate or party and confirming.
• The rule that blank votes are not valid dates to Law No. 9.504/1997, and the distinction matters for other contests because Senate winners are the top vote-getters without a majority requirement and deputy seats use party-list (legend) votes in seat allocation.