In Miami, the largest Brazilian electoral college in the United States, a sea of people wearing green and yellow filled the only polling place, and lines could take up to four hours, according to reports from Brazilians.
Gustavo Pimentel, 27, has been in the city for ten years, says it took him about an hour to get a vote. “And my line was moving very fast. The others hardly moved”, says he, who complains of disorganization in the place.
A major complaint from voters was that while in previous elections the polls were downtown, this year the polling station was moved to a location 40 minutes away — the Kendall campus of Miami Dade College, a higher education institution. — which caused confusion.
In the corridors of buildings R and 9, lines and chaos — the sections were identified in small font and almost invisible arrows. The amount of people made the lines lose direction and mix between one section and another.
“There’s even a line to go to the bathroom,” one woman complained. “At least it’s not the INSS,” replied the other, good-naturedly. Around noon, in the lobby between the buildings, a green-yellow crowd was singing the Brazilian national anthem. You could count on your fingers who wore red or spoke for a candidate other than the current president.
Living in the United States for nine years, journalist Caroline Oliveira made a point of traveling almost the 400 kilometers that separate Orlando from Miami to vote. “I noticed that those who vote for Bolsonaro were wearing green and yellow clothes. They appear more and were quite aggressive. The opposition was more timid.”
A Lula voter and wearing neutral colors, she felt the hostile atmosphere. “I got in and out as quickly as possible, I wasn’t feeling well. I thought the people in green and yellow were cornering others. Sometimes people in red would pass by and they would shout ‘Lula thief'”. According to her, there was a lot of disorganization and lack of respect, but it was still “worth the trip”.
Architect Tatiana Moreira agrees about the lack of organization. “I was in line for more than an hour to vote. I thought everyone was very lost and there was no one to give information, but people were helping each other.”
According to her, who is a Bolsonaro voter and has lived in the United States for 25 years, this election was the busiest. “The majority there was Bolsonaro. Everyone I know would vote for him. If Bolsonaro doesn’t win here, then I believe there is a fuss. It was crowded and everyone was singing songs against Lula.”
Moreira, who was at the polling place between 1:00 pm and 2:30 pm (local time), witnessed another chorus of the national anthem and two anti-PT scenes. “There was a woman with a poster saying bad things about Bolsonaro and people surrounded her saying ‘Lula thief’. And she passed a guy wearing a Lula shirt and people were booing.” Despite the episodes, she defines the overall mood as “beautiful to look at”.
In the United States, more than 180,000 Brazilians are eligible to vote, with Florida being the largest electoral college in the country, with 40,100 voters. After Miami, Boston appears with 37,000 registered voters, and New York has 28,000.
In 2018, President Jair Bolsonaro, of the PL, received 91% of the votes in the second round in Miami. In the first, he had 80%, and Miami also put João Amoedo (6.2%) and Ciro Gomes (6%) ahead of the then PT candidate, Fernando Haddad, who at the time received only 2.9% of the votes.
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