Distrust of the electronic voting machine is one of the most discussed subjects of this election. Astrologer Shelly Gonella cast the sky of the runoff over Brazil's chart to answer a direct question: does the sky point to fraud?

• Does the sky point to fraud at the ballot box? No. The sky of the runoff shows a strong climate of distrust and rumour about the voting technology. Fraud is proved with evidence, and in 30 years of electronic voting machines none has been proven.
• Why do so many people have doubts? On voting day, Neptune, the planet of fog and rumour, touches Brazil's own Neptune and the country's Uranus, which rules technology.
• How does it end? The challenge goes to the courts and lasts until mid-November, when Mercury turns direct again over Brazil's Mars: the debate is closed with the institutions standing firm.

The question of fraud has come back into circulation in 2026, as in 2018 and 2022. It shows up in forwarded messages, in videos of unknown origin, in calls for printed ballots and in sincere questions from people who simply do not understand how the machine works. After a first round decided by less than two points, the doubt gained strength on both sides: whoever loses suspects, and whoever wins fears the victory will be contested.

This research does not claim there was fraud, and it does not claim there will be. It deals with the subject because it is in the air, and because the sky explains very well why it is in the air.

Astrology reads the climate of a moment: what people feel, fear and argue about, and where a conflict tends to go. It is very good at that. Fraud is something else: it is a fact proved with documents, forensic examination and testimony. No chart replaces proof, and no serious astrologer accuses anyone of a crime on the strength of the sky.

That is why the right question for the sky is a different one: why do so many people distrust the system, and where will that distrust end up? For that question, the sky of the runoff has very clear answers.

On 25 October, Neptune makes an exact square to Neptune in Brazil's chart, within three tenths of a degree. Neptune is belief, the dream and also the fog: everything that cannot be seen clearly and that, for that reason, gets imagined. When Neptune in the sky strikes a country's Neptune, collective belief goes into crisis. What was trust becomes suspicion, and rumour runs faster than fact.

It is the climate of forwarded messages, of videos of unknown origin and of certainties without proof. This sky shows suspicion everywhere, without saying whether it is true.

On the same day, Neptune squares Brazil's Uranus, within a little over a degree. Uranus is the planet of technology, electricity and machines. Neptune on Uranus is fog over technology: the difficulty of trusting something that works without anyone seeing inside it.

That is exactly what the electronic voting machine is for most voters. The sky explains precisely why the machine becomes the centre of doubt in this election.

On the eve of the vote, Mercury stations in the sky and turns retrograde at Scorpio 20°, inside Brazil's house 9, which is the house of Justice and the law. Mercury is the count, the word and the document. Retrograde, it reviews: appeals, requests for recounts, speeches that refuse to accept the number. In house 9, all of this ends up in the courts.

Mercury turns direct again on 13 November, and on that day it passes over Mars in Brazil's chart. Mars is strength and firmness. It is the picture of a debate closed by a firm decision from the institutions.

There is also Pluto square Brazil's Mars throughout the period: pressure on the security forces, called on to guarantee order while the dispute runs its course.

The electronic voting machine has been used in Brazil since 1996. In 30 years, no fraud has been proven. It goes through public security tests, in which outside specialists try to break into it, and at the end of voting each machine prints a report with the votes of that polling station, which is posted on site and published online. In 2022, the Armed Forces' report on the electronic system found no fraud.

Even so, the doubt exists, and the sky of this election indicates it will be large.

Every democracy depends on believing in something one does not see working. Nobody personally checks the votes of the whole country, just as nobody checks the aircraft engine before boarding. Trust is what connects millions of people to a result they did not witness. When it breaks, no proof seems enough.

The ancient Greeks separated opinion, which is what one thinks, from knowledge, which is what can be demonstrated. Doubt is healthy when it asks for demonstration, and corrosive when it refuses any demonstration. It is the difference between investigating and distrusting everything.

An old saying goes that a lie travels around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes, and Neptune's transit over Brazil's Neptune describes a period like that. Astrology can help people recognise the climate and avoid being carried away by it: when the sky is full of fog, the wisest question is always "where is the proof?".