For the fifth time in three and a half years: Israeli citizens go to the polls

November 1, 2022   

The fifth round has begun:  Israeli citizens will vote today (Tuesday) in the elections for the 25th Knesset, and 6,788,804 Israelis will be able to exercise their right to vote.

Want to know which polling station you are voting at? Here you will easily find out • Enter Polling stations across the country opened at 07:00. A total of 12,495 polling stations will be open, most of which will close at 22:00, when the results will be announced on various television channels. In communities with fewer than 350 residents, polling stations will close at 20:00. In hospitals, prisons, and nursing homes, polling stations will be open between 08:00 and 20:00. In addition, approximately 280 COVID-19 polling stations will be open for patients in isolation, and they will be able to vote only at these polling stations, which will open at 08:00 and close at 20:00. The patient will be asked to present a certificate from the Ministry of Health or sign a declaration stating that he or she is sick with COVID-19. Of the total polling stations, 5,121 are accessible, and of these, 2,938 are designated as specially accessible polling stations. A person whose physical condition limits their mobility, and the polling station where they are registered is not defined as accessible, may vote at any polling station designated by the Central Elections Committee as a special accessible polling station, in an outer (double) envelope. A voter whose disability is not visibly apparent and who does not have a certificate attesting to their disability will be required to sign a declaration form before the polling station secretary. A false declaration is a criminal offense. The counting of votes will begin immediately upon the closing of the polling stations at 10:00 PM. Each polling station committee will count the votes and transfer them centrally, with the ballot boxes, to the regional elections committee, from where the results will be fed into the computers of the Central Elections Committee in the Knesset.

The interim results are expected to begin streaming overnight on the Elections Committee website, and they will be updated gradually.

In the previous elections, the value of a mandate was 35,831 votes. This means that if the voting figures are similar, in order to enter the Knesset, a list will need to obtain at least 143,327 votes - which is 4 mandates.

 The final results, after counting the duplicate envelopes, are expected to be received on Thursday. The official final results will be published by Friday afternoon, and will be submitted to President Yitzhak Herzog next Wednesday, November 9.

Last week, the Central Bureau of Statistics published data ahead of the elections for the 25th Knesset, which will take place on Tuesday. The number of voters in the State of Israel stands at 6.2 million. Since the last elections for the 24th Knesset, held in March 2021, the number of eligible voters living in Israel has increased by 3.3%, which is approximately 196 thousand people. 77% of eligible voters living in Israel are Jews, including 11% Haredi. 17% of eligible voters are Arabs and 6% are others defined as non-Arab Christians and residents without religious classification – most of them immigrants and their families who are not registered as Jews in the population registry. In addition, approximately 15% of eligible voters are young people aged 18-24, 29% are aged 25-39, and 31% are aged 59-40. The share of eligible voters aged 60 and over is about 251%. However, according to the Central Elections Committee, there are 6,788,804 eligible voters. Since the previous elections, 210,720 voters have been added.