World
Voting in runoff counts as proof of life for INSS beneficiaries
Voters who missed the first round of Brazil's 2026 elections can vote in Sunday's runoff and have their attendance automatically recorded as proof of life by the National Social Security Institute.
Those who did not vote in the first round of the 2026 elections can vote normally in the runoff being held this Sunday (25), provided their voter registration is current. According to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), each round constitutes a separate election, so missing the first round does not prevent participation in the second. For the Electoral Justice system, these are independent votes.
Voting in the runoff automatically serves as proof of life for beneficiaries of the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), including retirees, pensioners and recipients of assistance programmes. Verification is conducted through data exchange between the Electoral Justice and Social Security, without requiring document presentation or visits to INSS offices. This rule was established by ordinance in 2022 during the administration of then-president Jair Bolsonaro.
The second round of the 2026 presidential elections is taking place across Brazil. In some states, voting also covers the gubernatorial race: five states and the Federal District are holding both elections simultaneously. In other cases, such as Pernambuco, only the presidency is voted on in the runoff because the first round already determined the gubernatorial outcome.
More than 158 million voters are eligible to vote in Brazil. Paraná has the country's fifth-largest electorate, with over 8.6 million voters, while Minas Gerais is the second-largest, with more than 16.3 million voters. Pernambuco has over 7.2 million eligible voters, distributed across more than 3,300 polling stations.
In Presidente Prudente, São Paulo state, more than 36,000 eligible voters failed to show up in the first round and can vote this Sunday out of a total of 165,000 voters going to the polls. In the Rio de Janeiro municipalities of Macaé, Rio das Ostras and Casimiro de Abreu, 329,000 eligible voters are set to vote, with electronic voting machines to be distributed on Saturday under security force supervision.
In the first round in Rio Grande do Norte, abstentions and blank and invalid votes totalled 669,539, equivalent to 25.2 per cent of the 2.6 million eligible voters. This means one in four eligible voters either did not show up or cast no valid vote for a candidate. The figures come from the Superior Electoral Court.