BRAZIL: Uniform Ballot

Brazil got along in past elections with an awkward arrangement under which each party printed and distributed ballots listing only its own candidates. That system gave an extra advantage to the bigger, better-organized parties with more funds to spend for ballots and more effective methods of distributing them. Last week, in the record time of 15 minutes, the Senate unanimously passed a bill requiring the use of uniform ballots listing all candidates. Three minutes after the measure landed on his desk, President João Café Filho signed it into law. Reason for the haste: military leaders had demanded ballot reform, and the politicos wanted to avoid giving them any excuse to intervene in the presidential election scheduled for Oct. 3.