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Vote Counting Underway for Double Envelopes in Israeli Elections

Israel's Central Elections Committee began counting "double envelope" votes early Thursday morning for the 26th Knesset elections. The process commenced at 1:00 AM at a dedicated facility in the Knesset parking lot, following verification procedures to ensure voter anonymity. These special ballots, which include votes from soldiers and those voting outside their designated polling stations, have the potential to alter the final distribution of Knesset seats.

4 newsrooms · 1 language · since 01:17

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Vote Counting Underway for Double Envelopes in Israeli Elections — Illustration by baba

What happened

01The Central Elections Committee began counting "double envelope" votes for the 26th Knesset elections at 1:00 AM on Thursday.
02By Thursday morning, election officials had tallied 90.2% of the total votes, representing over 5.1 million voters.
03The Likud party leads the preliminary results with 26 seats, followed by Yesh with 21 seats.
04A minor shift among Arab parties saw Ra'am gain one seat to reach seven, while the Joint List dropped to 12.
05The current coalition is projected to win 53 seats, the opposition bloc 48, and Arab parties 19.
06Two parties, Reservists and Economic and Amcha Israel, currently remain below the electoral threshold.
07Final election results are expected to be released on Thursday evening after all remaining ballots are counted.

Alongside the double envelopes, the committee continued processing regular polling stations. By early Thursday, results from 11,712 out of 12,018 regular stations had been received, representing over 5.1 million voters, with 90.2% of the total votes tallied. The remaining regular stations were undergoing standard quality control checks.

Preliminary results show the Likud party leading with 26 seats, followed by Yesh with 21. The Joint List and Yahad are projected to win 12 seats each, though a minor shift occurred among Arab parties as Ra'am gained one seat to reach seven, while the Joint List dropped to 12. The Democrats hold eight seats, while Yisrael Beiteinu, United Torah Judaism, Otzma Yehudit, Shas, and Ra'am each have seven. Hadashot HaYom and Zehut each secured six seats, while Reservists and Economic and Amcha Israel remained below the electoral threshold.

The current coalition is projected to hold 53 seats, the opposition bloc 48, and Arab parties 19. The Central Elections Committee emphasized that all current data remains preliminary, with final election results expected to be released on Thursday evening.

Summarized by baba from the reports of 3 newsrooms. Updated 07:46

Latest report: JDN. Read JDN’s original