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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
1. For years I have been astounded at the lax attitude the US has toward election fraud. Elections that take days. Ballots moved around. One of the reasons is that I have seen a much better system, the system that is used in Israel. This is thread describing the Israeli system
1:13 PM · Nov 10, 2020

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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
2. First of all, scale. Israeli polling stations are tiny by US standards. In 2015 I wrote down the stats to myself, they haven't changed much since: There are 10,119 polling stations for 5,883,365 eligible voters. That's 581 people per polling station
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
3. Most of the polling stations are rooms in schools. A single school might have dozens of polling stations, each in its own room. When I lived in a village, the polling station was in the community center, and there was only one polling station for the whole village
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
4. Only one voter is allowed in the room at a time, although parents often take their children in with them. Several poll workers are seated behind a table, along with several observers. Each party has the right to appoint observers to each polling station
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
5. You present your ID to the poll workers, each one looks at it, and you (it has your picture) and crosses your name off the list of voters assigned to that station. One poll worker gives you a special envelope. You take the envelope to another table behind a screen
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
6. In Israel you vote by putting slips of paper into the envelope, but there is no reason why you couldn't fill in your ballot behind the screen, and put it into the envelope. When you are done, you seal the envelope, and in full view of everyone, you put it into the ballot box
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
7. At the end of the day, the ballot box is opened, and the ballots are tallied. The poll workers must agree on the tallies, and they are in the same room as the observers. There is no question about distance. They are not 6 or 12 feet away. They are almost on top of each other
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
8. Several checks are done on the tallies. The tallies of the poll workers must agree with each other, with the number of people who voted, the total number of envelops given out, and with the number of envelopes that remain
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
9. Israel permits absentee ballots only for soldiers, workers in foreign embassies, prisoners, and patients in hospital. Elderly and disabled people are given help to get to regular polls
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
10. Absentee ballots are cast in double envelopes. The outer envelope has the ID of the voter. Absentee ballots are counted after all other ballots, and the outer envelopes are checked against the voting record, to make sure that no one votes twice
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
11. There are no chain of custody issues as there are in the US. The only ballots that are moved from place to place are in hospitals, and they are only moved within the hospital, in public, and under guard. All other ballots are counted in the place where they are cast
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
12. Results come in within hours of the polls closing. By morning, even the absentee ballots are counted. Everything about the process is redundant, public, and secure. The key to making the whole process work is its small scale
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
10 Nov 2020
13. There is no reason why the US can't adopt similar procedures
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David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
24 Nov 2020
14. Added:

David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
17 Nov 2020
In the Israeli system there are strict rules for what constitutes a legal ballot. There's no room for guessing intent. Either you followed the rules and your intent is clear, or your ballot is invalid. One of the rules is: You may put nothing in the envelope other than the ballot
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