Saraiva Law

In the twenty years before the end of the 19th century, Brazil was characterized by being a predominantly agrarian, landowning and slave-holding country. To maintain the order of the monarchic regime, the Empire used a political system in which the two main parties were controlled by the government and the electoral process kept much of society marginalized. It was from the economic progress in the coffee cycle, mainly in the province of São Paulo, that urban groups began to demand greater political participation, the replacement of the indirect electoral system by the direct one and the end of the census vote.[1][2][3][4][5]

According to the 1824 Constitution, issued by emperor Pedro I, Brazilian elections would be for the choice of representatives of the legislative and executive powers. To vote, the citizens had to be male (slaves and women excluded) and be at least 25 years old (this minimum age was not valid only in the case of married men, clergymen, military personnel and graduates, who could vote at 21). In addition to these sieves, the electoral system used census voting, where one would only be able to vote by proving a minimum annual income from employment, commerce, industry or land ownership. With slavery still legal, the census vote excluded more parts of the Brazilian population, transforming the vote into an instrument of political action for the elites of the time.[6][7][8]

Even with all the requirements, the few people who could vote did not directly choose their representatives; this was because, in the electoral system of the Empire, voters were divided between "parish voters" and "provincial voters". Parish voters were those who proved a minimum annual income of 100 thousand réis to vote for provincial voters, who, in turn, proved a minimum annual income of 200 thousand réis and voted directly for deputies and senators.[7][8]

At the time, deputies and senators had to prove a minimum income even higher than voters in order to be a candidate. Candidates for deputy should have a minimum income of 400 thousand réis per year, while candidates for the Senate had to earn 800 thousand réis. This requirement meant that, in the country's main legislative positions, there were no representatives of the majority of the Brazilian population, which were the less financially affluent layers of society.[7][8]

In January 1878, emperor Pedro II, pressured by society's demands for direct elections, summoned João Lins Vieira Cansanção de Sinimbu, the Viscount of Sinimbu, to preside over a liberal cabinet, with the task of carrying out electoral reform to introduce the direct vote in Brazil. The law project proposed doubling the minimum income for citizens to vote, from 200 to 400 thousand réis in addition to excluding the right to vote for all those who could not read and write - a condition that did not exist in the 1824 Constitution.[7][3]

Before the project was presented in the Chamber of Deputies, some deputies already argued that giving the right to vote to those who could not read and write would undermine democracy. Other deputies, such as Sinimbu himself, then Prime Minister, argued that literacy would be the least one can demand as a sieve of a person's intellectual capacity when choosing their representatives. The bill was eventually passed in the Chamber on 9 June 1879 and sent to the Senate. There, analyzed by two commissions, the bill was rejected as unconstitutional on 12 November 1879.[1][3]

The elector registration license instituted by the Saraiva Law

This context was responsible for placing illiteracy as a central topic of discussion at the time, causing the definition of an illiterate person to be associated with a condition of ignorance, blindness, lack of intelligence and political incapacity.[1][3]

Since the Senate had denied the electoral reform of Sinimbu by constitutional means, the Imperial government had the only way out to introduce the reform through an ordinary law to the new government. The emperor appointed José Antônio Saraiva to institute a new ministry that would have the task of carrying out an electoral reform in Brazil on 28 April 1880.[1][3]

In an extraordinary session held on 29 April 1880, José Antônio Saraiva presented the electoral reform project prepared by his cabinet, where, according to the law, there would be no literacy requirement for voters to choose their representatives, only the basics would be required, such as a signature, to give regularity to the vote. A special commission took care of the proposal and, on May 25, offered a replacement project that had the support of Saraiva's cabinet. In this project, illiterates continued to be excluded from the electoral process, though indirectly, since, although literacy was no longer mandatory, at the time of voting the individual had to write the names of the candidates and sign the date of the election.[1][3]

Even though the project was approved by the Chamber on 25 June 1880, Saraiva's project caused great discussions in the Senate. The senators who were against the project claimed that the illiterate would not be able to have the intellectual capacity to choose a candidate, since they did not know how to write their names with their own hands. The senators who were in favor argued that any Brazilian citizen, who acquired insignificant income or any education, should enter the electorate.[1][3]

The replacement project of Saraiva's cabinet was approved in the Senate on 4 January 1881, becoming Decree No. 3,029 of 9 January 1881, which was commonly referred to as the Saraiva Law.[1][3]