Students use 'disability loophole' to vote

Radio personality Gabi Gazit was criticized by the head of the Elections Committee earlier Tuesday after calling on voters to pretend to be disabled so they can vote wherever they wish, but it seems he is not the only one who thought of the idea.

Most students at Be'er Sheva’s Ben-Gurion University are not registered as residents of the city. But no democracy-loving students will let a technical default stand in their way, and in a city where malls are busier than polling stations, the only jams registered were at stations with access for the disabled.

According to the law, people who cannot make it to the ballots because of disability can vote at any station without being registered there. Election officials cannot ask about the disability or about the reason for choosing to vote at the particular location, and have to approve the vote.

The diligent students, who are familiar with the law, abused the fact that they do not have to show medical documents and rushed to polling stations with access for the disabled.

“I believe this should have happened a long time ago,” Tzvika Aron, an MA student, told Ynet. “It is also about saving money, when every student has to pay tens if not hundreds of shekels to vote in his hometown. I am happy with the loophole in the law.”

Amir Bar-On, of Tel Aviv, added: “Why should I travel two hours to vote if I can do so here? If I had to travel, I wouldn’t have voted.” Also other students who live far from Be'er-Sheva used the loophole in the law to vote.

“They told us it is okay to do so, it’s fine,” one student said.

Earlier, Gazit called on voters in his program on Israel Radio to pretend to be disabled to vote more comfortably. Elections Committee Chairman Judge Dorit Beinish turned to the Israel Broadcasting Authority to take “suitable action” against Gazit.

Gazit defended his position: “Actually everyone says they want you to vote. On the one hand they want you to vote, and on the other hand they make it difficult for you because these elections are primitive on the managerial and conceptual level. But they give you a small hole through which you can squeeze yourself.

And if its is necessary for you to vote, and I am sure this is the case, and you are not in Kiriyat Shmona but in Tel Aviv, go to any station and say: ‘I am disabled, I want to vote.’ They will give you a double envelope, they won’t ask you questions – they are forbidden to do so.”