New Hope, Yisrael Beytenu, Joint List say their ballots disappearing from polling stations

Haviv Rettig Gur is The Times of Israel's senior analyst.

A polling station for people under COVID-19 quarantine in Jerusalem, in the Knesset elections, March 23, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
A polling station for people under COVID-19 quarantine in Jerusalem, in the Knesset elections, March 23, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

The first complaints of vote fraud are starting to trickle in.

The New Hope party files a formal complaint with the Central Elections Committee claiming that its ballots have been removed from several voting stations in Haifa, Sderot, Yavne and Ramle. They are calling the disappearances “systematic” and “nationwide.”

At least two ballot stations, one in the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood in Haifa and the other in Beersheba, are reporting that Joint List ballots have disappeared.
And Yisrael Beytenu is reporting that its ballot notes in two ballot stations in Ashkelon were covered up by Shas and Likud ballots.

Complaints are surfacing on social media of election observers arriving late at some stations and saying they received envelopes for their ballots that someone had marked with a pen.

Ballot envelopes cannot have any distinguishing markings on them whatsoever. Any envelopes marked in any way are disqualified for fear of fraud. Any voter who is handed a marked envelope at the ballot station should throw it out immediately and demand another envelope from ballot station staff.

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