Election czar asks police to probe suspected voting fraud at 3 polling stations
Review ‘points at irregularities’ in southern town of Rahat, central city of Lod and northern community of Iksal; fewer than 200 votes in question, so results won’t change
Raoul Wootliff is a former Times of Israel political correspondent and Daily Briefing podcast producer.
Central Elections Committee chairman Neal Hendel on Monday asked the Israel Police to open investigations into suspected voter fraud at three polling stations during last week’s general election.
According to Hendel, the election body’s own review process “pointed at irregularities” in polling stations in the southern town of Rahat, the central city of Lod and the northern community of Iksal, saying that”the police must open investigations into each of these cases.”
Hendel, in a ruling transferring the probe to police, wrote that in Rahat’s polling station No. 18, “the number of envelopes signed by members of the ballot committee is fewer than the number of envelopes inserted into the ballot box”; in polling station No. 68 in Lod, “The number of votes actually was eight more than the number of voters actually voting”; and in polling station No. 11 in Iksal, “there is a mismatch between the number of votes that were recorded in the ballot committee’s record in favor of the Joint List and those found in the ballot materials.”
The final, though unofficial, results from Monday’s election were published Thursday by the Central Elections Committee after delays in checking a number of polling stations and ballot boxes. The election committee nevertheless reserved the right to amend them before they are formally handed to the president on Tuesday.
However, with the total votes in the three polling stations under review totaling less than 200, it appears unlikely any significant changes will be made.
Central Elections Committee director general Orly Adas on Sunday said there was “no chance in the world” that the Knesset seat distribution would change after the alleged irregularities are probed, indicating that the current published results will also be the official final outcome.
The final results gave the Likud party 36 seats to rival Blue and White’s 33, leaving the right-wing bloc led by the premier at 58, three seats short of the majority required to form a government and continuing a year-long deadlock.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party said it would petition the High Court to allow it to review the count for all polling stations, demanding all the tallying protocols be released.
Likud said in its statement that it wanted to correct “errors in the recording and writing up of results,” without providing any evidence.
But the Central Elections Committee on Friday said that it dismissed any implication that there was political involvement in the tallying of votes.
“The Central Election Commission rejects all attempts by Likud factions to repudiate the professional and dedicated work of the committee’s employees and to undermine its credibility. Needless to say, Likud representatives attended almost all the polls, and signed the results themselves,” the committee said in a statement.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
