Israel is providing shuttles to polling stations for Israelis who are positive for the coronavirus during the March 23 election, Central Elections Committee director Orly Ades stated on Monday.

Accommodations will also be made for those in quarantine during the election by converting dozens of buses into voting booths, which will also reduce crowding in established polling stations. The number of voting stations, which is normally about 11,000, will be increased to about 15,000 in an effort to avoid crowding on Election Day.

The Central Elections Committee has estimated that nearly 12% of voters – representing 15 Knesset seats – will have to cast votes in special voting stations. The committee will have 48 hours before the weekend to count the special ballots, which are placed in double envelopes. If they don’t succeed, the tally will be delayed until after the first day of Pesach, which falls out on Sunday.

The Election Committee is obligated to count all the votes within eight days but this year, three of those days are non-working days: Friday, Shabbos, and Sunday – the first day of Pesach – in addition to the hundreds of thousands of extra special ballots due to the coronavirus.

Ades said that the committee hopes to meet the challenge of completing the tally before Shabbos and has hired dozens of additional workers who will work unceasingly following the closing of the polls until the votes are counted. “We’ve done everything we can to enlist every possible resource,” she said.

Another option being considered by the committee is placing voting stations at Ben-Gurion Airport, enabling returning Israelis to vote before returning home to quarantine.

All the necessary adaptations necessary to safely vote during the pandemic will result in the most expensive election in Israel’s history.

There are currently almost 40,000 active coronavirus cases in Israel, and about 120,000 Israelis in quarantine.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)