What is on the ballot · Sunday 4 October 2026

• President (and Vice-President, on the same ticket) — 4-year term.
• 27 Governors — one for each of the 26 states and the Federal District (Brasília).
• 54 of the 81 Senators — two per state this time (Senate seats are renewed by one-third and two-thirds in alternating elections); 8-year terms.
• 513 Federal Deputies (Chamber of Deputies) — 4-year terms.
• State Deputies for each state assembly (in the Federal District: District Deputies).

About 159 million people are registered to vote (TSE). Voting is compulsory for literate citizens aged 18 to 70, and optional at 16–17, over 70 and for those who cannot read. Brazilians living abroad vote for President only (shown here as “ZZ” / Abroad).

How winners are decided

• President and Governors: a candidate needs more than 50% of the valid votes. If nobody gets there, the two most-voted candidates meet in a runoff on Sunday, 25 October.
• Valid votes are votes for a candidate (or, in the proportional races, for a party). Blank votes and null votes (an invalid number typed on the machine) are counted but are not valid, so they do not enter the 50%.
• Senate: plurality, no runoff — the two most-voted candidates in each state win. Each senator is elected with two alternates (suplentes).
• Chamber and state assemblies: open-list proportional representation per state. The electoral quotient (valid votes ÷ seats) gives each party or federation one seat per full quotient; leftover seats go by highest averages (Law 14,211/2021, as adjusted by the Supreme Court in 2024). Each party's seats then go to its most-voted candidates — so a very popular candidate (“vote puller”) can bring others in.
• Coalitions are allowed only in the majority races (President, Governor, Senate). In proportional races parties run alone or in federations — alliances that must last at least four years and count as a single party.

How the count works

• Voting is on electronic voting machines, 8:00 to 17:00 Brasília time in every state (since 2022 the whole country votes on Brasília time).
• When polls close, each machine prints and transmits its tally. The TSE (Superior Electoral Court, which runs Brazil's elections) totals them and publishes the results files this board reads every minute.
• Progress is measured in polling sections counted (seções totalizadas), not in votes. Results typically arrive within a few hours; the proportional races take longer.
• Candidates whose registration is still under appeal appear with votes annulled sub judice: their votes are counted apart and are not valid unless the courts clear them.

Reading this board

• All percentages are of valid votes, as in the official results.
• “Leading” and “Heading to a runoff” describe the count so far — not a forecast. “Mathematically decided” uses a strict bound: it assumes every voter in the sections not yet counted turns out and votes for whoever is behind. “Elected (TSE)” and “Runoff (TSE)” are the court's own declarations.
• Regions report at different speeds, so an early lead can move: the count composition panel shows how far the counted votes are from the electorate's real distribution.
• The simple estimate and the Chamber seats are this board's arithmetic on the votes counted so far (labelled as such) until the TSE publishes the official result.
• Times are Brasília time (BRT, UTC−3). Colors identify candidates only and say nothing about party or ideology.