Head of Elections Committee: We Can Handle an Election in 90 Days, Not Less Than That

YERUSHALAYIM
Employees adjust a “sterile” polling station set up by the Election Committee ahead of the March elections so Israelis, in isolation over coronavirus concerns, will be able to vote on election day . (Reuters/Nir Elias)

Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting of the State Control Committee on the preparations for possible general elections during the corona crisis, Central Elections Committee Director-General Orly Ades said “We have proven in our committee that any mission given to us, we can handle successfully. The law says 90 days, and we can still handle an election in 90 days, no more but not less than that, despite the huge challenges.”

Ades told the committee chaired by MK Ofer Shelah (Yesh Atid-Telem) that the 90-day minimum for elections was set in 1968, when Israel had a fraction of the population it has now, and the corona pandemic will make it even more difficult to hold an election in the minimum period of time.

“We are working on a plan for designated ‘vote and go’ areas for corona patients and people in quarantine,” Ades said, adding the Elections Committee was also developing a mobile polling station that will “come to the car” and thus allow corona patients to vote in an isolated space. Ades said that despite the coronavirus, elections will be held in one day, but the Elections Committee will have to add more polling stations and staff across the country, spread out lines and launch an information campaign.

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