Voto facultativo e sua aplicabilidade no sistema eleitoral brasileiro.
Resumo
The vote is the main tool of democracy and, on this theme, two types of voting systems
can be highlighted: the compulsory vote and the optional vote. The present study
analyzed the consequences for the population of the adoption of the mandatory
electoral system in Brazil, based on official data and doctrine, since this mandatory
system demands coercion by the State, which penalizes with fines the voter who does
not go to the polls during elections. With this, the central objective of the work was to
understand the aspects of a possible implementation of the optional system in Brazil
and its possibilities, verifying through literature research the opinion of doctrines, as
well as conducting a comparative analysis with the rates of countries that adopt the
optional system, taking into account their similarities with Brazil. From this point of view,
it was possible to verify the real benefit of changing the system of compulsory voting
by optional, however, it was clear that this implementation is not feasible today, due to
several factors that will be presented throughout the text, however, this change is
possible, if performed in a planned and elaborate way, which would result in benefits
of greater political adherence in the long term.
Keywords: Optional vote. Democracy. Electoral system.