The president of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Kassio Nunes Marques, is considering dropping a plan to create an "accuracy seal" for polling institutes ahead of the 2026 elections, after the idea drew a wave of criticism, according to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The proposal would have rewarded polling companies whose final pre-election surveys came closest to actual results.

Forty days after he first floated the idea, Nunes Marques has concluded reception was poor both among pollsters, who saw the plan as a mistake, and among his colleagues on the electoral court, Folha reported. Even so, the judge has told aides the seal has not been ruled out entirely and could still be adopted in future elections.

Nunes Marques presented the idea on July 14 at a meeting with representatives of 16 polling institutes. The gathering was called after the judge himself imposed restrictions on a poll by Atlas/Bloomberg that showed a six-percentage-point drop in voting intentions for one of the candidates, according to Folha. The TSE is Brazil's top electoral authority, responsible for organizing elections and policing campaign conduct, including the accuracy and methodology of published polls.

Beyond the seal, the court is studying other measures to regulate electoral polling and increase transparency around the methodologies pollsters use. People close to Nunes Marques say he treats the polling agenda as a priority of his term, but acknowledges that debate over artificial intelligence in the campaign is more pressing right now.

AI deepfakes take priority

One case pushing that urgency involves a video of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) used by the presidential campaign of his son, Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). Aides to Nunes Marques say the matter should reach a full-court vote "soon" and that he himself is expected to vote for a broad ban on so-called deepfakes, a shift from his earlier position, which favored banning critical AI-generated videos while allowing positive AI content, in what he had called "good AI."