Counting of Double Envelopes Begins Tonight for Election Results

The Central Election Committee will commence the counting of "double envelopes" at midnight, following the tabulation of all regular ballot boxes. This process involves verifying eligibility, sorting, and counting to ensure each vote is counted only once. Elad Naveh, Control Manager at the Election Committee, explained the procedure and the timeline for releasing final results.

The operation is managed by the Special Voting Department, led by Eli Levy. Initially, each outer envelope is checked against the committee's systems to confirm the voter listed has not already voted at their registered polling station. Once this verification is complete and the vote is approved, the inner envelope containing the ballot is extracted. This inner envelope is then added to a central pool of approved ballots, with voter identification removed to maintain the secrecy of the vote and prevent double counting.

"After the envelope is cleared and validated, and we know for certain that the person voted only in the double envelope, the inner envelope is extracted and placed into a large pool of envelopes," Naveh stated. Following the collection of these inner envelopes, they will be divided into batches and transferred to the Knesset for counting. The integration of these votes into the final election results, and the subsequent update of vote and mandate allocations, can only occur after this counting is completed.

Naveh indicated that the aim is to finalize the entire process by Thursday evening, allowing for the publication of election results that include the votes from the double envelopes. "We are at the beginning of the operation to count the outer envelopes, after all the regular ballot boxes have been entered into the system," he said.