I was lucky enough to witness Brasil's presidential election on my second day in the country. I was impressed with how easily and quickly Patricia and her family voted. With only half an hour before the 5:00 deadline, we headed to a local school and were out within a few minutes. No lines, no confusion, no fuss. The final results were ready in less than two hours. The whole process is electronic and consistent over the whole country and surprisingly for me as an American, there were no major news reports of voting irregularities or broken machines or disenfranchised voters. A nice neat election. Of course, the wrong person won according to Patricia, but she was justly proud of the efficiency of the process. It seems the whole world is intimately familiar with our voting woes and recounts.
Another interesting thing about Brasil is that if you are between 18 and 70, you are obligated to vote. If you don't, they can deny you a passport and other documents. To me this appears to be a double edged sword; you get massive participation, but you also have an uniformed group of people voting just to fulfill their obligation. According to some Brasilians, the latter is why Presidente Lula was re-elected.
This photo is of the Brasilian Congress. The whole city is like a huge modern art museum with graceful curves and minimalistic design almost everywhere. It is the first completely planned city in the world and is truly singular. You could not get lost here if you tried. More about this later after I explore more and try to get lost.
