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President Donald Trump pointed to quick results in the first round of voting in Brazil’s presidential election to denounce the pace of ballot counting in Democratic U.S. areas as “corrupt.”
Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro — the son of Brazil’s former president who was sentenced to prison following an attempted coup after losing the 2022 election — was leading Oct. 4 in the first round of voting ahead of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 47% to 45%. They will proceed to a runoff Oct. 25.
Trump posted Oct. 4 on Truth Social, “125 Million People voted today in the first round of Brazil’s Presidential Election. The results came out shortly after the vote closed, on the SAME DAY! In Detroit, Philadelphia, California, and numerous other U.S. Cities and States, the results, with much smaller numbers, will often take weeks to Rig, I mean, calculate. Voting in America is CORRUPT!!!”
In a different late night post that is no longer available, Trump made the same statement about India, which did not hold a presidential election over the weekend.
READ MORE: Brazil heads to a runoff election after Bolsonaro and Lula fail to garner a majority of votes
By the time of Trump’s Brazil post, it was clear the candidates were headed to a runoff and nearly all votes were cast.
The pace of vote counting is not a sign of election rigging. Brazil and the U.S. have different voting systems and election laws.
For years, Trump has repeatedly spread falsehoods about “rigged” elections, including in California. Officials abiding by state law is not a sign of fraud.
How Brazil administers elections
Brazil has no mail-in voting. Voting is in person, at electronic voting machines, and it is mandatory for citizens between ages 18 and 70, said Pablo Ortellado, University of São Paulo professor of public policy. Voting takes place on a single day that is a national holiday.
Elections are run by a specialized branch of the judiciary, the Electoral Justice system. At the top is the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), a national court that sets the rules and coordinates 27 regional electoral courts that handle elections on the ground.
“It is a single, nationally standardized system: the same machines, the same procedures and the same counting process across the whole country,” Ortellado said. “That is a big part of why results come out within hours.”
Brazilian officials have worked to increase transparency. In 2021, the Superior Electoral Court created the Electoral Transparency Commission, which includes experts, civil society entities and public institutions in inspecting and auditing the electoral process.
The country has used electronic voting machines since 1996. Voters cast ballots on dedicated machines protected by multiple layers of testing and auditing.
“Curiously, Brazil’s electronic voting system, which is indeed very fast and quite secure, draws heavy criticism precisely from the Brazilian right that is sympathetic to Trump,” Ortellado said. “Critics argue, among other things, that because there is no printed record of each vote deposited in a ballot box for physical verification, the system cannot be properly audited.”
Since the late 1990s, the nation’s election results have been available quickly.
As soon as the polls close at 5 p.m., results are gathered, said Paulo Valle, a political scientist and researcher at the University of Central Florida and FGV in Brazil. “By the end of the evening we have 99.9% of the ballots counted.”
Brazil has a completely paperless system, said Eduardo Repilloza Fernández, coordinator general for Transparencia Electoral, an organization that encourages elections held according to internationally recognized integrity standards.
“There’s no signatures to check, no physical paper-ballot tabulation systems. Voters do not get an individual receipt of their vote,” Fernández said.
How the U.S. administers elections
In the U.S., each state sets its own election laws, and cities and counties administer elections.
State laws cover the deadline for receipt of mail ballots, when election officials can open mail ballots and prepare them for tabulation and the dates by which they must certify official results. All of those laws play a role in how long it takes to complete the official count.
Some contests have wide enough margins between top candidates that media outlets can project a winner based on partial results. But the final official results are often certified weeks later. If the vote is close, even an election with little mail balloting can take time to call. Some elections with lots of mail balloting can be called quickly if a candidate is far ahead.
No state completes an official count on election night.
Trump singled out California, which often takes longer than the rest of the country because nearly everyone votes by mail and it counts ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received not later than seven days after Election Day.
Expansive voting by mail is convenient for voters — even Trump frequently votes by mail. But it takes longer for local election officials to process and verify mail ballots.
We asked the White House for Trump’s evidence that the pace of counting ballots in California or the cities of Detroit, Philadelphia or elsewhere is a sign that people are rigging the election. We did not get an immediate response.
Falsehoods followed Brazil’s 2022 election
President Jair Bolsonaro, father of Flávio Bolsonaro, narrowly lost in 2022 and claimed the election was fraudulent, sparking protests by his supporters.
More than 1,000 people stormed Brazil’s government buildings including Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices on Jan. 8, 2023, smashing windows and setting fires. In March 2026, Bolsonaro received permission to serve his sentence for the coup attempt at home because of poor health.
The Atlanta-based Carter Center, which sent observers to Brazil for the election, said it was not aware of any evidence of fraud in the 2022 election, and none of the international or Brazilian observers reported any evidence of significant fraud. The center similarly sent experts to watch the 2026 election.
Cesar Zucco, a Columbia University professor of Brazilian studies, told PolitiFact that voter registration, voting and counting “are electronic and safe” and that “the only people that ever questioned the mechanics of the elections were Bolsonaro and his allies in the recent past.”
Our ruling
Trump said Brazil’s same-day election results are proof that places like Detroit, Philadelphia and California “take weeks to rig” their elections.
His frequent critique after other countries’ speedier election results still lacks evidence.
Brazil and the U.S. have different voting systems and laws. Brazil has a nationally standardized system that uses the same machines, the same procedures and the same counting process across the whole country, and doesn’t have voting by mail, which is expansive in some U.S. states, including California. Voting by mail takes longer for local election officials to process mail ballots and verify they were cast by the voters whose names are on the envelopes.
The pace of vote counting is not proof of election rigging.
We rate this statement Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
- The Carter Center, Carter Center to Deploy Election Expert Mission for Brazil Elections, Sept. 1, 2026
- Reuters, “Bolsonaro will face Lula in runoff in Brazil’s presidential vote,” Oct. 4, 2026
- Associated Press,Bolsonaro and Lula head to a runoff in Brazil’s presidential election, Oct. 5, 2026
- Associated Press, Bolsonaro allowed to serve 27-year sentence at home due to ill health, March 24, 2026
- NPR, Brazil’s presidential race heads to Lula–Bolsonaro run-off as right gains ground, Oct. 4, 2026
- Factchequeado, Brazilian elections 2026: what to vote on and how the electronic voting machine works, Oct. 3, 2026
- Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas, Ten Questions and (Easy-to-Digest) Answers About the 2026 Brazilian Elections Oct. 2, 2026
- President Donald Trump, Truth Social, Oct. 4, 2026
- Forbes, Trump Appears To Mix Up Brazil’s Presidential Election With India’s As He Calls U.S. Voting ‘Corrupt’ Oct. 5, 2026
- Factbase,Press Gaggle: Donald Trump Speaks to Reporters Before Marine One Departure, Oct. 2, 2026
- New York Times, No One Is Defying Trump Like Brazil’s President, Aug. 6, 2025
- Maricopa County Elections, X post, Nov. 10, 2022
- National Conference of State Legislatures, Elections and Campaigns explainers, 2026
- U.S. Attorney’s Office Central District of California,Press release, Aug. 28, 2026
- PolitiFact, Tucker Carlson’s unfounded claim that Brazil’s election was rigged, Jan. 12, 2023
- PolitiFact, Why days of ballot counting isn’t suspicious, Nov. 9, 2022
- PolitiFact, Ask PolitiFact: What would speed up election results? Nov. 10, 2022
- Email interview, Cesar Zucco, professor of Brazilian studies and International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, Oct. 5, 2026
- Email interview, Pablo Ortellado, professor of public policy, University of São Paulo, Oct. 5, 2026
- Telephone interview, Paulo Valle, researcher at the University of Central Florida and FGV in Brazil, Oct. 5, 2026
- Email interview, Eduardo Repilloza Fernández, Coordinador General, Transparencia Electoral, Oct. 5, 2026
