Carrie Keller-Lynn is a politician and correspondent for The Times of Israel
On Tuesday, 6,788,804 eligible Israeli voters will have the opportunity to vote for Israel’s 25th Knesset.
If you are one of them, The Times of Israel will advise you through the voting process, so that your vote for one of the 39 parties running for election is counted.
Most of the more than 12,000 polling stations deployed across Israel open at 7 a. m. M. y close at 10 p. m. , although they allow voters to enter before the deadline to vote. More rural polling stations and some specialized polling stations open an hour later, at 8 a. m. M. , so it may appear too early on the way to the beach.
In terms of eligibility, Israeli citizens over the age of 18 on election day can vote. Although Israelis over the age of 17 can vote in municipal elections, this reduced age threshold applies to national elections.
Immigrants who complete their citizenship registration at least 60 days before the Nov. 1 election are also eligible to vote, adding up to about 45,000 new Israelis who arrived at the end of August this year.
Registration is automatic in the inscriptions in the population register.
Unlike many other countries, Israel restricts the right to vote for imprisoned people. This year, 55 polling stations will be installed in pretrial and criminal detention centers to serve the criminal population.
However, Israelis who are or are not near their polling station on election day cannot vote, with some express exceptions.
Israel does not allow postal voting. Only the estimated 4,500 Israelis stationed as diplomats, representatives of other ministries, the army and police and their families were able to vote beyond the state’s borders. They completed this procedure on 20 October.
Votes in the country of initiation are cast through a paper poll with physical rolls. As a result, Israelis will have to vote at the express polling stations assigned based on their registered address. soldiers, the elderly, others in care facilities, hospital patients, and others with disabilities.
If you belong to one of those groups, you will want to bring evidence of eligibility to a special polling station or sign a statement certifying your wish. Israelis are deterred from abusing those polling stations as a way of bypassing the assigned polling station. , partly due to the fact that it is a crime of thief.
There are also 414 special polling stations for the electorate that must quarantine after being exposed or inflamed with COVID-19.
Most voters get information about their voting station by mail, adding a quick voting booth at a larger polling station. It is possible to verify this information online, by entering an identity number (mispar zehut) and the factor date of the identity card.
Many Israelis have to vote, adding academics and others who took advantage of election day as a public holiday to take mini-vacations. Intercity public transport is loose for those who can justify desire.
Before boarding the bus, you must bring one of the 3 photo IDs issued by the State of Israel and accepted at the voting booth: identity card (te’udat zehut), driver’s license or passport.
Once at the assigned polling station and at the proper polling station, voting is a low-tech process. Behind a privacy shield, voters are greeted through stacks of ballot papers containing a party’s call. Four-letter party codes can be overwhelming, so many voters memorize the letters attributed to the party they have selected before entering the polling place.
For example, Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party uses the letters Pe-He (פה) and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party uses Mem-Het-Lamed (מחל). The existing letters of each match can be found here. The letters they used in past elections remain, with new parties and several entering and outgoing the race, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the letters to look for November 1.
There will also be a stack of blank ballots at the polling station. They are not for writing; Rather, they are used in the rare cases where the voting station runs out of ballots for the party you wished to vote for. In this case, write the alphabetical code of the organization of your selection in large, legible letters. Be read, manually, through a tired and harassed ballot clerk who expired on Tuesday night or in the early hours of Wednesday.
After sliding the poll into an envelope, or if it is a special voting station, two envelopes, which are used to attach a call to the vote and reference a local list for voting in duplicate, place the envelope in the blue box with slots and wait. The results.
Most counts are conducted at the polling station or a regional headquarters, and counts and ballots are taken to the Knesset to record official effects with the Central Election Committee. Although official effects are expected up to 8 days after the election, final effects are expected later this week.
The CEC director general recently described election day as the country’s largest civilian operation. However, this is a step in the political operation. After election day, Israelis will still have to wait days, weeks or even months until they know if a government will be formed and who will be part of it.
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