76 Days to Elections:  Voter Interference Israeli Style  

 While the US worries over whether US President Trump will try to influence the outcome of the upcoming mid-term elections by trying to pass what he calls the “Save America Act,” which would, by most estimates, reduce the number of primarily Democratic eligible voters countrywide, Israel is now in the midst of a brouhaha about who can vote in our upcoming elections as well.

Analysts in the US predict a potential Democratic rout in the mid-terms scheduled for November and, the thinking goes, the opposition might try whatever it can get away with to bend the voting in their direction.  In Israel, with up to 70% of the population expressing their opinion that it is time for a new Prime Minister, voices here for the first time in my memory are raising questions about who should be entitled to vote in our upcoming elections as well.

Voting here is, of course, limited to those who are citizens and, therefore, would have their names listed on the polling records of eligible voters.   Unlike the US, here one must vote in person at the polling place on election day to cast a vote.  Exceptions are made for people on active duty in field conditions, diplomats abroad, people who are hospitalized, etc., but in those cases the “voting booth” as it were is brought to them so that they can cast their ballots.

Therefore, one needs to be physically in the country to vote and be present at the polling station. To address the needs of those who are not as mobile, in all elections since COVID-19, ballot boxes have also been placed in senior living and protected housing locations as well. Unlike the US, there is no option for mail-in ballots.

Voting here is taken very seriously.   Election Day is a national holiday with schools, government offices and places of business closed.  In the last Knesset election in 2021 fully 67.4% of eligible voters cast ballots.  This year that number is expected to be higher.

This year two new issues have cropped up, probably for reasons similar to those in the US….i.e. the party in power is concerned about losing that power.

Traditionally, for example, many Israeli citizens living abroad but who still consider themselves very much Israeli, come back to Israel for a few days for the express purpose of voting. I was scheduled to fly from Newark to Tel Aviv a number of years ago on a flight which left the US the day before the election here and was filled with those who wanted to make it back here to vote.  Their luck, the aircraft was delayed to the next morning and, as those people would not have made it back in time to vote, they never showed up the next day….and the flight returned half empty.

A row over Israelis living abroad who plan to return to vote in the October 27 election spilled into the open over the weekend. It began with a Friday column by Makor Rishon editor-in-chief Kalman Libeskind, who argued that Israelis who have permanently moved abroad should think twice before flying back to help choose the country’s next government.  It seems that some 31,000 Israelis abroad have already indicated their intent to return and the expectation is that as many as 70,000 voters living abroad will travel here specifically to vote.

Libeskind’s argument seemed straightforward: people who have built permanent lives elsewhere will not live with the day-to-day consequences of the government they help elect, including its decisions on security, the economy, and military service.

The arguments that surfaced afterwards, for and against, all revolved around whether people thought it would be good for their party if the overseas people voted or if the reverse were true.

But while there may be some perceived validity to the argument that people who have chosen to build their lives elsewhere will not be affected by the decisions of the government here and therefore should not be eligible to vote, that simply is not true.

We Jews are very connected with our families regardless of where we may live.   So just as I worry about what goes on in the US and how it will affect those of our children and grandchildren who still live there, I vote in US national elections (only) by absentee ballot as I have retained my US citizenship along with that of Israel.  The same is no doubt true, in reverse for Israelis living abroad and being concerned about family here.

It would seem that in a true democracy someone who holds citizenship in that country should always have the right to vote as long as the regulations that govern the process of voting are observed.  Chipping away at that right is yet another nail in the coffin of democracy.

On a related issue, Israel’s Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday on a petition against the Knesset’s repeal of a provision that required voting booths in retirement homes and assisted-living facilities, with the petitioners arguing that removing the in-house polling places would violate the residents’ rights.

Ending the practice would affect between 35,000 and 37,000 people — about one Knesset seat’s worth of votes — according to Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee member Oded Forer, whose party is seen as one that is likely to suffer from the removal of the polling booths.

The petitioners were 56 elderly citizens who live in senior citizen facilities, who filed their suit against the Knesset, the Central Elections Commission, and the attorney general as a representative of the government. Several organizations serving the elderly also petitioned.  The defendants have argued that the issue is outside the court’s authority.

“Fifty percent of seniors have disabilities, and this decision is simply opposed to an entire sector of society,” Yuval Venger, head of the Israel Center for Accessibility, said before the hearing, according to an article in Haaretz.

Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, who previously served as chairman of the Central Elections Committee, expressed skepticism about the Knesset’s decision, saying: “The previous arrangement worked great in past elections,” and cited his experience in that role.

To be sure we are at a critical period in world history where autocrats have gained a great deal of power and are desperate to hold on to it.  Nevertheless, there are certain elements of democratic representative government that must remain sacrosanct and the right to an unencumbered voting process is one of the most important.   Any government in power who abandons respect for that process admits to being prima facie evidence as being complicit in the ultimate demise of personal choice and freedom.   That dare not be allowed to happen, not here, not anywhere.

Carthago substituenda est!