The Central Elections Committee is advancing a bill to make permanent a pilot program that places polling stations in nursing homes and sheltered housing, a measure that was approved as a temporary order in the last two election cycles during the coronavirus crisis. The goal is to raise voter turnout among older adults, but coalition parties are resisting the change.
Likud and Religious Zionism representatives voted against the proposal in the committee plenary, yet it still won a majority and is set to go before the Knesset Constitution Committee next Monday. Coalition sources told ynet that the bill would give an electoral advantage to Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman, and they noted that it also covers public housing for immigrants who reached retirement age.
The proposal does not apply to frail nursing-home residents, because if a facility has a nursing floor with 50 hospitalized residents it is treated as a hospital, where a ballot box is already placed. Under the draft, ballot boxes would be installed in assisted-living homes, Ministry of Construction and Housing facilities for low-income residents, and clusters of public apartments for immigrants who may remain there after retirement age.
Critics in the coalition say the move is discriminatory and harms electoral equality. Knesset Constitution Committee chair Simcha Rothman, who is also Religious Zionism's representative in the committee plenary, opposed the plan on those grounds. The same committee is also considering a separate change that would let any voter update an election address up to 64 days before voting, helping students near their campuses and also yeshiva students, but Likud objects over possible logistical chaos and large voter movements between polling stations.
