“Trying to delegitimize the election results”

Orly Adas faces the biggest professional challenge of her life. It has been chairing the Central Election Commission for 11 years, and is now entering the last line of a fourth consecutive election campaign. On Wednesday morning, after a white night of samples, hundreds of thousands of double envelopes of voters from special polling stations will be collected in her office – already today, five days before the election, the storm is raging around them, and some are taking care to refuel it.

Political sources, almost all from the prime minister’s entourage, hint that the process is tainted and could skew the results. In recent weeks, Netanyahu’s son, Yair, has even addressed his followers on social media and encouraged them to enlist and work as members of polling committees or as vote writers. The message is clear: “our own” people need to oversee the process. Yesterday, it was Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin who attacked directly: “The committee’s decisions are absurd and biased to a certain side.”

You encounter criticism directed at you from the direction of political factors.

“There are attempts to delegitimize the election results and the credibility of the Election Commission, because if the credibility of the Election Commission is harmed, then there will be delegitimization of the results. This happened at the end of the 22nd Knesset elections, intensified in the 23rd Knesset elections. We’re aware of this, and I’m sorry it’s happening, but I think the Central Election Commission has demonstrated exceptional execution capabilities, and that all the claims made so far have no grip on reality.

“In any case, we are prepared for it and understand that from the time the polls close, there will be false news about the election results, for one reason or another. We have seen this happen elsewhere, not in our districts, and we will be prepared for it. I hope the public knows not to be dragged after this news. And will wait for the real results. “

Does this stress affect?

“There should be no such pressure in any democratic country, and I do not want to think that anyone wants to do that, so I will not name this or that. In the work of the committee there is no distinction between left and right, ultra-Orthodox and secular, and we do not refer to political statements. If so it may affect the process – which is why I have expressed my position on these random statements made.

“All those sources who claimed that the elections in the State of Israel were unreliable, or that the results were unreliable, or that the purity of the elections had been violated, could not prove it. No real evidence for these claims. I’m not saying there are no incidents – yes, there are incidents, but remember that elections are a huge thing, so things will happen on the margins. In the end, following all the actions the Election Commission takes “Improving ballot equipment, numbered locks that are recorded in the protocol, and a variety of other things – the ability to harm the purity of the election and commit forgeries is almost nil.”

What did you think of the attempt of the “If You Will” organization to include its supporters in the counting process?

“We recruit our employees alone, we do not use any external suppliers, except for the recruitment of employees in the Knesset vote counting operation by a staffing company. This time we needed a double number of employees, over 6,500 people. This company was required to recruit, and we asked them to pilot. “They posted about it on our Facebook page, that link was threaded out in WhatsApp posts, and ‘If You Will’ posted it on their page and called on people to sign up there. This violated the principle of equality for us, so we disqualified a hundred or so people who signed up through the pilot.”

The prime minister’s son came out criticizing the committee, claiming that you deleted their link. After the elections to the 22nd Knesset, he also claimed that the Election Commission “stole the election.”

“With all due respect to the Prime Minister’s son, really – if he makes claims he is welcome to bring evidence for these claims. Claimed on social media, for example, in the last election campaign, which had 67 seats to the right, To the typing room – and when we suddenly left there were 58 seats to the right. So I have a surprise to tell the public: The election results are not recorded here in the typing room the results on an erasable board, which Orly enters, takes a swab, erases and writes 58. It does not happen, there is no such thing. The system of results is a credible system, and I invite all those who make baseless claims, completely unfounded, even the angles and without any grip on reality, to simply bring evidence to those claims. With the evidence we will talk. I think the public needs to be smart enough to filter out all the unreliable information that is being circulated. “

Yair Netanyahu also has allegations against the current chairman of the committee, Judge Uzi Vogelman, who is a graduate of the Wexler Foundation, and about the cancellation of Netanyahu’s appearance on the stand-up program on “Network 13.”

“I find this very sad. I do not intend to advocate for the many virtues of the Supreme Court Justice in Israel, who acts in accordance with existing law and fulfills his role faithfully for the benefit of the Israeli public. Judge Vogelman and his predecessors are multi-faceted, and their ruling accompanies us not only “In all areas of life. I don’t think it’s even worth addressing these claims.”

The question is whether not done here and there, with other appearances of politicians on television?

“Judge Vogelman made his decisions in accordance with the existing provisions of the law, according to which there was prohibited election propaganda. If you want to change the law, the Knesset is invited to examine it after the election. Our job is to find the right balance and say whether the dominant effect is news or propaganda.”

How do you cope with the changes in morbidity?

“In recent days, we have seen a decrease in the number of patients and an increase in the number of isolates, and all this has dramatically changed the distribution of polling stations for us. We built the polling stations according to the morbidity that was a few days ago, and we are constantly updating.”

Why did you decide to go for the patient transportation system anyway? After all, you were very opposed to this at first, when the Ministry of Health demanded it.

“What ultimately led us to decide on the patient transport system was the desire to tell the public that there is no fear of going to the polls, after we have done so many actions to ensure its health. The election. “

Will the shuttle system also be for insulators?

“We are in discussions with Get Teksi, because this is the only company that has the ability to manage tens of thousands of taxis for this purpose. The driver and the isolator – who must be registered on the website of the Ministry of Health – will be required to wear masks, with the isolator sitting in the back with the windows open. “

What about opening the sky?

“There is talk that seven thousand to ten thousand people will land here every day, so we are preparing for more than 70,000 isolated on election day. This is an unprecedented number that does not match the predictions we received at first. To dilute the number of voters at isolated polls we want to explore the possibility of establishing A voting complex at the airport for those who land on Election Day. “