TSE Proposes Accuracy Seal for Election Polls

Overview

• On Tuesday July 14 the TSE president, Kassio Nunes Marques, presented a draft portaria creating a “Selo Acurácia Eleitoral” and opened a short comment period that runs through Friday July 17.
• The draft limits eligibility to publicly disclosed surveys published on election day or within seven days before voting and bars firms with definitive irregularity convictions from receiving the seal.
• Major institutes and the sector association ABEP objected that judging polls by post‑election closeness confuses a snapshot of opinion with forecasting and could create incentives to publish numbers geared toward winning the award.
• Some smaller firms signaled support at the meeting of 16–19 institutes, and legal questions remain because the portaria could be issued monocratically while its application to the 2026 vote may be constrained by rules on annuality.
• TSE officials said comments will inform a wider push on transparency and technical rules for surveys, including PesqEle updates, guidance on neutral question wording, and safeguards for digital polling that could change how polls are run and reported.