With corona, Israel considers drive-through polling stations

Jan 4, 2021

Israelis are currently under a third national lockdown, as the number of people infected by the coronavirus keeps rising. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly considering tightening restrictions even more. At the same time, Israelis are now facing yet another round of elections. But how can the authorities handle both campaigns at the same time?

After three tense election campaigns — each resulting in deadlock — the State of Israel was at an impasse, with neither the Likud nor the Blue and White party able to form a government. Finally, in May 2020, the leaders of the two major blocs — Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud and Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party — agreed to form a unity government.

Based on the coalition’s basic guidelines, Israel’s 35th government was intended to deal with the coronavirus crisis and the accompanying economic crisis, while fostering an atmosphere of national reconciliation. It was hoped that this would begin to heal the deep divisions plaguing the country for the past few years, while combating the pandemic. Seven months have passed since that government was formed, and it now seems as if the “coronavirus coalition” has done everything but deal with either the coronavirus crisis or the economy. As for national reconciliation, there’s nothing to see here. The official “reconciliation cabinet,” supposedly formed with the new government, never actually met. Meanwhile, with the announcement that the 23rd Knesset had been dissolved, Israelis found themselves headed to a fourth round of elections in just two years.

The new election is scheduled to take place March 23. Israel started its coronavirus vaccination drive Dec. 27. The Ministry of Health has managed so far to vaccinate with the first dose out of two some 1.2 million people, which is more than a tenth of its population. With this, Israel is now at the forefront of the international vaccination effort. Still, the pandemic keeps raging in Israel, and there are no guarantees that its spread would be halted by election day. Thus, the Central Elections Committee is hard at work discussing preparations for the elections, given the particular challenges anticipated as a result of the virus.

In an interview with Knesset TV, head of the Central Elections Committee Orly Ades said, “This is an unusual challenge. Not only is it complicated, it is also very different from the other challenges we faced over the last two years. We are expected to find solutions that protect the health and well-being of the public, while providing people with an opportunity to vote based on existing election formats. It’s not like we can come up with some new system in the time allowed us so that people can vote online, by mail, by phone, etc. Israel has a system in place in which the principle of the secret ballot is paramount. We are now focused on finding a variety of solutions that would eliminate mass gatherings in the polling stations on election day.”

What kind of solutions are they talking about? Some ideas include reducing the number of voters in each polling station, so that they do not exceed 650 people; identifying public buildings that can be used to split up large polling stations and reducing the number of people in each; setting up two partitions in each polling booth in order to speed up the voting process, providing protection for all members of the local voting committees, including a barrier between them and the voters; and best of all, setting up a series of voting stations designated specially for people who are ill or in isolation. One proposal is to set up drive-through voting stations, so that people can vote from their cars without getting out. That way, they can avoid any direct contact with healthy individuals.

Then there is the campaign itself. Parties will have to deal with election campaigns in the shadow of the virus, with all the restrictions that this entails. For one thing, they will be forced to show much more creativity in the ways that they communicate with voters. Meretz Secretary-General Tomer Reznik told Al-Monitor, “These elections force us to rethink the way we campaign, particularly when it comes to campaign activities on the ground. We will place special emphasis on encouraging voter turnout on election day, using a variety of tools, including both traditional and digital tools.”

Similarly, a representative at Yesh Atid headquarters told Al-Monitor, “As a result of the coronavirus crisis, we are preparing for an election with many challenges. We are hard at work on all sorts of new tools, mostly digital but also some that have never been seen in Israel before.”

Will we see drive-in election rallies, like they had in the United States? Only time will tell.

What about the Arab Joint List? Lately, it has been suffering from an internal crisis. In previous elections, Israeli-Arab voters rewarded the party when it united, punished it when it disintegrated. Israeli-Arab politicians are well aware of that. They are also well aware of the low vaccination rate within their electorate. This in turn could spark another rise in the COVID-19 infection rate in Arab towns and villages. Thus, Israeli-Arab politicians must contend with two factors that threaten to reduce turnout within the Arab population. To this, we should add a traditionally lower vote rating in Arab towns and villages, compared with voting in the Jewish sector.

So, what are Arab politicians doing to prepare for this election? One of the Joint List leaders, Ra’am Chairman Mansour Abbas, told Al-Monitor that campaigning amid the coronavirus pandemic will indeed present a challenge. “We have to see what happens when the actual campaign begins. Right now we are under closure, so there is nothing we can do. Given the current circumstances we will have to rely on technology, social networks, the media, Telegram, WhatsApp, billboards and other methods that do not require direct contact between people. That way we can avoid putting the public and our candidates at risk,” he said.

Aaed Kayal, who ran the Joint List’s campaigns in the past, told Al-Monitor, “We will have to wait and see how all the measures announced by the Central Elections Committee take shape in the Arab society. The situation could impact older voters who are concerned about going to polling stations to vote. This, in turn, will impact voter turnout [in Arab towns and villages], which I believe will plateau at around 60%. There will be greater emphasis on digital campaigns, the media, and voice and text messages, etc. Similarly, greater efforts will be made to recruit opinion-shapers, both from social media and on the ground, including mayors and other well-known leaders in the various towns and villages. I expect digital campaigns to work overtime, with election gatherings via Zoom. On the other hand, it is also possible that with the vaccination campaign, the situation will improve considerably by the time election day comes around.”