Israel's Central Elections Committee announced Wednesday that an extensive review of the country's parliamentary election results had found no evidence of irregularities compromising the integrity of the vote or altering its outcome. The announcement came ahead of the official publication of the results of the election for the 26th Knesset, which are scheduled to be presented to the president later Wednesday.
According to the committee, the review covered records from 9,069 polling stations, approximately 75% of the country's 12,018 regular voting locations. The operation examined all submissions from political parties, candidate lists and members of the public, including every polling station mentioned in those reports.
Voters in Tel Aviv
(Photo: AP Photo/David Goldman)
The committee said no discrepancies or findings indicating a breach of election integrity or a change in the results were discovered. Where corrections to election records were required, they were made based on official documentation and voting materials.
The review was significantly larger than the one conducted following the election for the 25th Knesset, when 5,100 polling stations, representing 43.5% of the total, were examined. The latest operation represented an increase of approximately 78% in the number of polling stations reviewed.
Nearly 3,700 reports examined
The committee said it received 2,452 submissions from political parties and candidate lists concerning 1,350 polling stations. Another 1,239 reports were submitted by members of the public on Election Day and afterward, relating to potential election integrity issues at 750 polling stations. All were examined.
Of the 9,069 polling stations whose protocols were reviewed, 350 underwent more extensive examinations of voting materials and documentation, including ballots and voter registers. Polling stations were selected for review based on reports from parties and the public, incidents reported during voting, statistical checks designed to identify anomalies, random sampling and additional criteria.
The operation involved approximately 250 lawyers from the public sector working alongside committee staff. It lasted six working days, from October 28 through November 3, with seven examination rooms and a central operations center operating in morning and evening shifts.
Central Elections Committee Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg said the review was unprecedented in scope and reflected the committee's commitment to ensuring that the official results accurately represented voters' choices.
"As part of the election integrity operation, an unprecedented number of polling stations underwent thorough examination," Sohlberg said. "The scale and quality of the operation demonstrate the Central Elections Committee's strong commitment to reflecting the will of the voters as accurately as possible." He also thanked those involved for their intensive, professional and dedicated work.
Acting Central Elections Committee Director-General Dean Livne said every report submitted by political parties, candidate lists and the public had been examined individually, with corrections made wherever necessary on the basis of official voting records and materials.
"This is our responsibility to the voters and to the lists that contested the election: to thoroughly investigate every claim, make corrections when needed and publish the findings transparently," Livne said.
He thanked committee employees and legal staff for their work, saying their efforts had enabled the committee to complete the review and present the public with carefully checked results reflecting voters' decisions at the ballot box.
The committee said its objective throughout the operation was to ensure that recorded vote totals accurately reflected the electorate's choices while maintaining transparency and public confidence in the electoral process. The official election results will be presented to the president and published in accordance with the law.