Acting director general of Israel’s Central Elections Committee, attorney Dean Livneh, said Thursday that elections in Israel cannot be rigged, even in theory. Speaking at Reichman University’s conference on “Data, Power and the State in the Age of AI,” he said, “The main danger is not election fraud, but erosion of public trust.” He added, “To rig an election, you need a conspiracy of tens of thousands of people.”
Livneh argued that the committee’s safeguards are among the strongest in the world, with technological tools, human oversight, checks at every stage, and supervisors in every polling station. “There is not a ballot envelope that we do not know where it came from and where it is going,” he said. He also rejected claims that insiders could alter results, saying the process is constantly cross-checked by representatives of different parties, poll clerks, inspectors, and observers.
To improve transparency, Livneh said the committee plans to livestream the vault holding the double envelopes so the public can see that nobody enters or leaves. He said a special team has been created to deal with disinformation and deepfakes, working with security, technology, and legal experts, and that the committee will push accurate information on social media, in the media, and on every available platform. The committee is also coordinating with Meta and TikTok to identify and remove misleading content quickly before Election Day.
Livneh said the committee is also preparing for emergencies, including war, disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and air raid alerts. He cited the COVID-era election as proof of that readiness, saying Israel was the first country to hold elections during a pandemic. In response to concerns about political pressure, he said there is always pressure, but insisted, “You cannot threaten me, you cannot scare me.” He also said secrecy rules for Knesset elections are anchored in Basic Law: The Knesset, that filming inside polling stations is banned, and that paper ballots remain a strength because the public can watch each vote being counted.
