How Israelis vote
Who can vote, how a paper ballot is cast, why nearly one vote in ten comes in a double envelope, and how election night turns into a final count.
1Behind the screen, take one slip for the chosen list
- אמת
- ב
- בד
- בי
- בקר
- ג
- ד
- די
- דרך
- ה
- ודם
- ז
- זך
- זץ
- ט
- י
- יק
- ך
- כן
- ל
- מחל
- ני
- נף
- נץ
- נקי
- נר
- עם
- פה
- צבי
- צדק
- צף
- ק
- קה
- קך
- קץ
- רץ
- רק
- שס
2Seal it in the envelope
3Drop the envelope in the ballot box
A voter away from their own polling station seals the envelope inside a second, outer one. In 2022, 9.63% of valid votes came in double envelopes, counted after the rest.
Procedure: Ynet, Oct 31, 2022; a slip with writing on it, a torn slip, or an envelope holding more than one slip is disqualified. Slips: the 38 lists on the Central Elections Committee's published roster, in roster order (the ballot directory). Double envelopes: Central Elections Committee, results by locality, computed.
Facts checked October 5, 2026. Every number shows its source and date.
Who can vote
Any Israeli citizen aged 18 or over who is on the voter roll can vote (Ynet, Oct 31, 2022). In 2022 the roll held 6,788,804 eligible voters (Central Elections Committee, 2022). For the October 27, 2026 election an estimated 7.56 million are eligible, 11% more than in 2022, mostly people who have turned 18 and newly naturalized citizens (IsraelEd, Sept 28, 2026). The committee had not published its own 2026 total in the sources checked for this page.
Citizenship, not residence, is the test. About 350,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem hold permanent residency rather than citizenship; they may vote in Jerusalem's municipal elections but not for the Knesset (Inter-Agency Task Force, updated Dec 2022). Palestinians in the rest of the West Bank and in Gaza hold no Israeli status (same source), and the committee's results files list no Palestinian localities there. Israeli citizens who live in West Bank settlements vote where they live: Ariel and Ma'ale Adumim, for example, appear as localities in the committee's 2022 results file like any town inside Israel (CEC, 2022). The vote map draws them that way.
Israel has almost no absentee voting. Only diplomats and official emissaries abroad may vote outside the country (IDI, Feb 18, 2020). The law's list covers government employees posted overseas, including military personnel, and emissaries of the Jewish Agency, the World Zionist Organization, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund and Keren Hayesod, with their spouses and children up to age 20. In 2022 about 4,500 voters were registered at 103 polling stations in 101 missions (Ynet, Aug 29, 2026). Every other Israeli abroad must be in Israel on election day to vote. For 2026, the missions vote from October 20 (Jerusalem Post, July 13, 2026).
Election day
Election day is a national holiday, with public transport running normally (Jerusalem Post, July 13, 2026). Most polling stations are open from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; smaller communities, hospitals and prisons from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. A voter still in line at closing time may still vote (same source). Salaried employees are entitled to a paid day off by law, and those who work that day get higher pay (Ynet, Sept 18, 2026).
Voting is on paper, not machines (IsraelEd, Sept 28, 2026). The voter shows photo identification, and the polling-station committee checks the name on the roll. The voter is handed an envelope, steps behind a screen, takes one paper slip for the chosen list, seals it in the envelope and drops the envelope in the ballot box. A slip with writing on it, a torn slip, or an envelope holding more than one slip is disqualified (Ynet, Oct 31, 2022).
Each list is identified by one to four Hebrew letters, and the committee reports its count by those letters, not by party name: in 2022 the Likud column in the results file was headed מחל (CEC, 2022). Letters can pass from one alliance to another between elections. The 2026 letters for the lists this site tracks are on the results page, under "The ballot letters". For what the votes turn into, see how seats are allocated.
Double-envelope votes
A voter who casts a ballot anywhere other than the assigned polling station votes in a double envelope, officially an "outer envelope." Most are members of the security forces stationed away from home. The rest include hospital patients and staff, prisoners and detainees, diplomats abroad, residents of senior-care facilities, and voters with disabilities, who may use any accessible polling station (IDI, Nov 2, 2022). Police officers who vote away from their own station use them too. Before counting, the committee gathers the double envelopes and checks that no one voted twice (Ynet, Oct 31, 2022). For 2026, the committee decided that soldiers deployed in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza may be identified by their military tags and a fellow soldier, and that this procedure applies to double envelopes, "which are counted at a later stage" (Ynet, July 30, 2026).
The share rose at each election from April 2019 to 2022, from 5.54% to 9.63% of valid votes (computed from the CEC files). IDI notes that more voters now use accessible polling stations, and that in 2020 and 2021 tens of thousands of double-envelope votes were cast by people in quarantine or hospital and by residents of senior citizens' homes (IDI, Nov 2, 2022).
Valid votes in the "outer envelopes" row of each election's results-by-locality file, divided by all valid votes.
Source: Central Elections Committee, results by locality, 2019–2022. Computed from the committee's five locality files. The double-envelope votes sit in one row with no locality (code 99999 in April 2019, 9999 after). The Israel Democracy Institute's own table divides by all ballots cast, valid and invalid, so its figures differ slightly (for example 9.59% for 2021).
These votes are why the count moves after election night. Double-envelope voters are younger and more often soldiers than the electorate as a whole. IDI found that Arab lists' share of these ballots is less than half of their share among regular voters, and that Haredi lists also do worse in them, so an Arab list hovering near the threshold after the regular count can fall below it once they are added (IDI, Nov 2, 2022). The 2022 file shows the pattern: Ra'am won 1.7% of the double-envelope votes against 4.3% of the votes counted by locality, while Religious Zionism–Otzma Yehudit won 15.5% against 10.4% (computed from the CEC file).
Each list's share of valid votes, in the double-envelope row and in all other rows of the 2022 locality file.
Share of double-envelope votesShare of votes counted by locality
- Likud
- Yesh Atid
- Religious Zionism–Otzma Yehudit
- National Unity
- Shas
- United Torah Judaism
- Ra'am
- Hadash–Ta'al
- Meretz
- Balad
The numbers: How double-envelope votes differed, 2022
| List (as it ran in 2022) | Share of double-envelope votes | Share of votes counted by locality |
|---|---|---|
| Likud | 23.5% | 23.4% |
| Yesh Atid | 16.9% | 17.9% |
| Religious Zionism–Otzma Yehudit | 15.5% | 10.4% |
| National Unity | 10.6% | 8.9% |
| Shas | 6.8% | 8.4% |
| United Torah Judaism | 3.7% | 6.1% |
| Ra'am | 1.7% | 4.3% |
| Hadash–Ta'al | 1.7% | 4.0% |
| Meretz | 3.1% | 3.2% |
| Balad | 1.6% | 3.0% |
Source: Central Elections Committee, results by locality, Nov 1, 2022. Computed from the committee's file. Selected lists; Yisrael Beiteinu, Labor and Jewish Home are left out of the table. Lists are shown as they ran that year.
Turnout
National turnout ranged from 67.44% to 71.52% across the five elections of 2019–2022; in 2022 it was 70.63% (CEC, 2022).
Votes cast as a share of eligible voters ("שיעור ההצבעה", the committee's turnout rate).
Source: Central Elections Committee, official national results, 2019–2022. Each row is from that election's official results page. The national figure includes double-envelope votes.
Turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel has been lower and has swung far more. The Israel Democracy Institute's Arik Rudnitzky measures it in Arab and Druze localities. It fell to 49.2% in April 2019, after the Joint List broke up, and rose to 59.2% in September 2019 when it re-formed (IDI, Sept 23, 2019). It reached 64.8% in March 2020, the highest in two decades (IDI, Mar 10, 2020), then dropped to 44.6% in 2021 (IDI, Apr 27, 2021), and recovered to 53.2% in 2022 (IDI, Dec 25, 2022). Because the measure leaves out double-envelope votes and Arab voters in mixed cities, it is not directly comparable with the national figure. More on the community is on the Palestinian citizens of Israel page.
Turnout in Arab and Druze localities, from Central Elections Committee data.
Source: Israel Democracy Institute, Arik Rudnitzky, 2019–2022. IDI's measure is turnout in "Arab and Druze localities": it includes Druze towns and leaves out Arab voters in mixed cities. It also leaves out double-envelope votes, which IDI says made the recorded figure lower than the true one in 2021, when many voters in quarantine cast double envelopes (IDI, Apr 27, 2021). Not directly comparable with the national chart, which includes double envelopes.
Election night
Polls close at 10:00 p.m. Israel time, and the three main television channels, Kan, Channel 12 and Channel 13, broadcast exit polls at that moment (Ynet, Nov 1, 2022). Counting starts at the polling stations at 10:00 p.m.; the ballot boxes then go to regional election committees, and the results are entered into the Central Elections Committee's system, which shows them as they arrive (Ynet, Oct 31, 2022). Votes cast at the missions abroad are counted on election day after 10:00 p.m. (same source).
In 2022 the count ran into the next day. By Wednesday afternoon over 80% of the votes had been counted, and many of those still out were double-envelope ballots (JTA, Nov 2, 2022). The committee's final 2022 locality file is dated November 8, a week after the vote (CEC file). For 2026, official confirmation of the results was scheduled for November 4, with appeals possible until November 18 (Jerusalem Post, July 13, 2026).
On October 27 this site follows the committee's count on the results page.
Misreadings
"Israelis abroad can vote by mail or at a consulate." There is no mail vote, and the consulate polling stations are open only to officials posted abroad and named national-institution emissaries, with their families. An Israeli who lives in New York, or is on vacation there on election day, cannot vote at the consulate (Ynet, Aug 29, 2026).
"The exit poll is the result." Exit polls are estimates. In 2022 the early exit polls put Meretz at 5 seats (Jerusalem Post, Nov 1, 2022). In the final count Meretz won 3.16% of the vote, below the 3.25% threshold, and no seats (CEC, 2022).
"Election-night numbers are final." About one valid vote in ten in 2022 was a double-envelope vote counted after the regular ballots, and those votes split differently from the rest. With 87.6% counted, Meretz stood at 3.19% and Balad at 3.02% (Jerusalem Post, Nov 2, 2022); both finished lower, at 3.16% and 2.91% (CEC, 2022). A list near the threshold is not in or out until the envelopes are counted.
"Low turnout means apathy, the same everywhere." National turnout has stayed near 70%, while turnout in Arab and Druze localities has swung by 20 points between elections, with the gap widest in 2021: 67.44% nationally, 44.6% in those localities (CEC, 2021; IDI, Apr 27, 2021).
"Every Palestinian under Israeli control can vote." Palestinian citizens of Israel can. Most East Jerusalem Palestinians are permanent residents, not citizens, and cannot vote for the Knesset, and Palestinians in the rest of the West Bank and Gaza, who hold no Israeli status, have no vote in it (Inter-Agency Task Force, updated Dec 2022).