Topic: What voting asks of you, country by country
How does Brazil mark What voting asks of you, country by country?
Everyday topic
Brazil is the only one of these seven markets where voting is a duty: Article 14 §1 of the constitution makes electoral registration and voting compulsory for those over eighteen, and optional for the illiterate, for those over seventy, and for sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds. Missing it means filing a justification within the legal window or paying a fine; otherwise a passport application, a public-service examination or certain certificates get stuck. Clause §2 adds that foreigners — and conscripts during compulsory military service — may not register as electors. The date is likewise nobody's choice: Article 1 of Law 9,504 of 1997 sets every election in the country on the first Sunday of October of the relevant year, with president, governors, senators and federal and state deputies all voted on the same day. Voting is on a Sunday, on electronic machines, and the result lands that night.
What is this topic?
Article 14 of Brazil's constitution makes voting a duty for citizens between eighteen and seventy, and you must account for missing it. Taiwan's Public Officials Election and Recall Act says in Article 17 that you vote at the polling station of your household registration — there is no absentee ballot, so election day becomes an island-wide journey home. China's constitution reserves direct election for the county and township level. And in the United States, federal law fixes election day as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November — a day that is not a holiday. One act, seven different answers to who may vote, where, and whether the day belongs to you.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.