The Supreme Federal Court’s extension of voting hours could still spill into a challenge to the second round, according to electoral-law professor Fernando Neisser, who said the measure arrived after some urnas had already been closed. He said that once a ballot box is closed, it cannot be reopened.
That is why the issue matters now: Cristiano Zanin accepted a request from the campaign of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and extended voting by two hours nationwide, but Kassio Nunes Marques then limited the change to sections where voting had not yet been concluded and the urnas were still open until 19h. By the time the decision was issued, the results page already showed 0,25% of votes counted nationwide, with Amazonas at 1%, Rondônia at 0,53% and Rio Grande do Sul at 0,01%.
Neisser said the timing creates a split between sections that were still receiving voters and those that had already finished voting, printed boletins de urna and, in some cases, sent devices back to the TRE of the state. The Folha reported that some urnas had already been closed and counted before the STF decision arrived, which made the extension unprecedented in the country and left different polling places under different rules.
Neisser said that disparity is what could give legal weight to a request for annulment. “Como a decisão [da extensão do horário] chegou no momento em que você já tinha urnas fechadas e outras ainda abertas com fila, isso significa que há uma disparidade com relação às diferentes seções eleitorais,” he said. He added: “A ver como isso vai ser conduzido, como vai vir na totalização. Mas, sem dúvida, abre a possibilidade de ser pedida anulação do segundo turno, com a realização posterior, daqui uma semana ou duas semanas.”
What happens next is not yet clear: whether any annulment request will actually be filed, and how the totalization will account for a decision that reached some sections after the voting there was already over. For now, the legal risk sits exactly where Neisser put it — in the gap between a nationwide order and a ballot box that could no longer be opened.
