IDF Opens 850 Ballot Stations for Troops Across All Fronts

IDF Chief Elections Officer, Lt. Col. Vered Ben Yehuda (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)

Voting for the 26th Knesset began Wednesday in IDF ballot stations across all military sectors. From the Hermon outpost in the north to Eilat in the south, from Lebanon and Syria to the Gaza Strip, soldiers and commanders began exercising their right to vote.

According to the IDF Spokesperson, more than 850 military ballot stations have been deployed across all sectors to enable every servicemember to cast a ballot. Voting will continue until the polls close on election day, subject to operational needs.

A quarter of the stations, some 200 of them, will be mobile ballot boxes, designed to reach all soldiers on active duty and active reserve service in every mission and every sector. The arrangement is unprecedented in scope and is intended to enable voting even for those engaged in operational activity and combat beyond the border.

The IDF's Chief Elections Officer explained ahead of the opening of the polls: "Our mission is to enable all IDF servicemembers to exercise their democratic right to a secret ballot even during operational activity and combat beyond the border. The IDF is a national army that will do everything necessary to enable the elections to proceed as planned."

The early voting in military ballot stations is taking place alongside the general preparations for the election. As previously reported, the Central Elections Committee has completed the printing of some 450 million ballot slips for approximately 7.3 million eligible voters, which will be available to voters at 12,018 polling stations across the country.

Election day for the 26th Knesset will take place on Tuesday, 27 October 2026. Until then, IDF soldiers in all sectors will continue to vote at the military ballot stations, while maintaining operational and security missions.