Some 14.5% of voters cast votes by 10 a.m., in slight drop from September

The Central Elections Committee’s director general Orly Adas reports that 14.5 percent of eligible voters have cast their ballots by 10 a.m. — half a percentage point down on that same time during the last election in September, but “much better than we expected.”

She says that several rumors stating that Itamar Ben Gvir’s extreme right-wing party, Otzma Yehudit, has pulled out of the election are untrue.

With Israel one of the only nations so far (following Iran and Slovakia) to hold elections during the coronavirus outbreak, the country’s specially adapted polling stations for citizens in quarantine are attracting international attention, according to Adas.

She says crowds are building up at these special polling stations, partly because it takes longer to process each voter, ensuring that sterile conditions are maintained.