Director General of the Election Committee for the Ministry of Health: “Do not frighten the public”

Is it possible in your opinion to hold an election campaign here within 90 days, which is a complex thing by all accounts, and more during an epidemic, with isolated people, corona patients and more?
“Tell you it’s ideal? No. 90 days is too little for such a complex and complicated system, but it’s the time. It’s a period of time according to the law and we’ll get together. It’s a very unique system, an election campaign in general is a huge, huge, complex enterprise. “The biggest citizen in the country. I do not think there is anything of this magnitude that converges to one day. Of course all the actions we will have to take now to protect public health and at the same time conduct a proper election and allow every citizen to go out and vote complex more, but I hope we meet it.”

Let’s try to get into the details because I guess you’re already starting to formulate a work plan. How is someone who is sick verified, I’m not even talking about someone who is in isolation which is also a question, how will he vote? After all, as soon as people knew that Corona patients were going to vote, they did not go out.
“I think it is possible, and I am very sorry about the statement made yesterday in the Constitution Committee. I think it will actually intimidate the voters and the intention should be different. We will take all possible actions to separate the sick and the isolated and the healthy, ordinary voters. “Touch, there will be unique, dedicated polling stations. We will protect the members of the polling committees, we will protect the staffs. I very much hope that there will also be cooperation from the public. Moral responsibility is really required here, personal responsibility.”

Dr. Sharon Elrai Price said yesterday that it is dangerous for those Corona patients to go to the polls, verified patients.
“I will mention that those verified patients also go out, it is true that there are a thousand differences, but they go to medical treatments, not just emergency treatments such as what was given yesterday for a heart attack that are referred to the hospital, so of course there is nothing to do. But go to radiation, dialysis and so on. Health trusts those people who go out, go to treatment, finish it and come home and do not go to do anything else along the way.So I think the Ministry of Health should trust all the sick and verified public and understand that if they are given the opportunity to go out and vote

That is, if they can go out for corona treatments or tests, they can also vote.
“Certainly, certainly, and the Ministry of Health does not drive them for this purpose, it trusts them that they got out of their private car and if they do not have a private car, that they will get along. Same with those coming from the airport, same. Trust them even if they are sick, did not feel well “Abroad, they returned to Israel and come home alone.”

But perhaps we have some opportunity here, Advocate Adas, to learn from what has already been the case in other countries, for example, of course, the US election campaign. True, an election is completely different, but maybe some of the method can be applied here, for remote voting, mail voting, maybe to make some kind of transition to an electronic method?
“How did you say at the beginning of our conversation? 90 days is enough? So no, I said 90 days is not enough, but we are certainly in the middle of an election campaign in fact. The atmosphere has been of elections for several weeks. It is impossible to change the election system in the country. “Israel during an election campaign. We do not change the rules of the game during the game, it is known in every area. There is no chance that the Knesset would now discuss during the election campaign changing the system. There is a very specific election system in Israel, this is the system that has existed for 72 years.”

“Therefore, any solution that needs to be found and found, needs to fit the existing method. In other countries we have seen recently indeed elections have taken place, we have followed it and checked. In fact, there are arrangements that existed before. The election method there was by mail and internet.”

Still, a question that many ask themselves. We can do almost any action today with the help of our telephone, our computer, it’s not a matter of 90 days. With logistical and even cyber deployment, it can be done. Maybe it is also possible to save human lives, maybe it is also possible to motivate more people to vote. Why not make this switch?
“I explained, it has nothing to do with the switch. First of all, it has nothing to do with the Election Commission, the Knesset has to decide. By the way, one of the main principles of the electoral system in Israel is voting secrecy. It means you go behind the curtain, you and yourself, decide what you want. And only you see what you put in the envelope.

Even the Americans who vote by mail, only they see what they voted for.
“Who said? You know, maybe I took and put a note to my mother. Can you tell? That’s exactly the point. There’s a matter of mentality and method here. Therefore, anyone who thinks that in 90 days you can change the election method, even to the computer. “The election, also to hold special elections in the shadow of Corona, probably does not know the world of elections and probably not the computerized world either.”

“I’m sorry I’m so poignant, this is not the time. It’s time to find adjustments to the existing method. There are many solutions. That the Ministry of Health will respect and find other solutions. We will take now, we will adapt our solutions to the existing method, She reinvented them. “

What other solutions have you come up with?
“We will take a series of actions, a group of actions. One, the whole purpose is basically for profit, the whole purpose is to ease the congestion. That the gatherings will be much smaller. Therefore, one, we will reduce the number of voters at the polls. If the number is up to 800 voters at the polls We’ll reduce it to 650. Once we reduce, and at a 70% to 72% discount, it’s less than 450 voters at the ballot box. We consulted with a performance research expert who also advises the security system, it will reduce the congestion at the polls. 1,500 polling stations, so there will be a gap as well. “

“In addition, large concentrations with more than 7 polling stations, there were suitable concentrations nearby, new ones that we do not use and they will be at our disposal. We will split the polling stations so that in that concentration, in the same cluster, there will not be too large a crowd.”

Will you treat the traffic light differently? To red, orange cities?
“I suppose so. We will make special polling stations for the isolated, special polling stations for the sick. This number is uncertain. We will know it only just before Election Day, because those who have been sick and isolated in the last ten days can vote at these polling stations. Election morning. “

“Of course if we identify a red city trend in these ten days then of course we will have to place in this area, in the area of ​​that local authority, more polling stations available to those isolated and sick residents. We will try to make the adjustments as much as possible.”

A mass of Israelis who will be vaccinated at the end of March, could there be designated polling stations for green passport holders?
“There will be no polling stations for green passports, because there is a limit to how many types of polling stations you can split. Each polling station has a very high cost and cost and you have to remember that. So we will do everything in the right dose.”

“Of course the vaccines and the vaccine of the population, and I very much hope that it will work, so it will also give more confidence to the public to go to the polls and understand that we have taken all the steps, along with the actions the government is taking today. I very much hope “.

Let’s tell the truth, we hear, in general, the Israeli public is quite trivially frightened and also hear the officials in the Ministry of Health who warn, you are not afraid of a low turnout because Israelis will be afraid to come and vote?
“I think everyone understands, we have all been living in the shadow of this epidemic for ten months. We all go shopping, we all go to medical treatments, we all go to the supermarket, wherever possible, we do such and such actions, so we will probably also go to the polls. We will go, stand in line and vote. “.

“I think we all understand that we also want governmental stability and we all hope that this system will bring this and that this will end the current round of elections and we will see each other only in four years, with the help of the name.”

By the way, splitting Election Day in two is something that is not practical in the country?
“This is something we thought about, it was seriously considered. We thought about all the pros and cons, I will just give some considerations why not. Election day is a sabbatical, if there are a few election days, they will not be a few sabbaticals and rightly so. Most polling stations are in educational buildings , In community centers, in places that are public during the day-to-day and serve the public. “It is not possible to suspend activity in these places for 3-4 days for the purpose of the election.”

“Second thing, we employ on election day, in a normal system, we and the parties have close to 100,000 people working on election day. This time, in this system, it means that this number will also increase, probably to 120-130 thousand people, which is a huge number. “A lot of people are unemployed, but still, I think we will also have a hard time recruiting people for so many days.”

“Thirdly, running a nationwide election campaign, for several consecutive days, means hundreds of millions of costs for each such day. It is a huge expense, so we think it is more appropriate to take all the actions I mentioned and more, like two screens at each ballot box to speed up the vote and more. Actions to reach and convene for one voting day. “

What is your message to the Ministry of Health after what we heard yesterday in committee?
“I am confident that the Ministry of Health knows that the guiding principle of the Election Commission is to protect public health is to protect public health, for all of us – our families, our children and our parents. We have no intention of doing actions that will harm the public.”

“There is a given situation – the State of Israel, the Knesset of Israel has decided to disperse, to disperse itself. This is a given situation. This is not a situation where the Election Commission has the discretion to come and say – okay, you dispersed? There is a plague? We do not operate. We will carry out the elections, while maintaining all the principles. “

“Please, the Ministry of Health, do not frighten the public. On the contrary, take all possible actions in the next three months to reduce the morbidity so that we reach March 23 with tens of patients and not with tens of thousands and then the situation of all of us will be much better, Including Election Day. “