Israelis are turning out in record numbers. By 6 p.m. Tuesday, 66.7% of eligible voters had cast ballots in the election for the 26th Knesset. At the same hour in the 2022 vote, the figure stood at 57.7%. Nearly 4.9 million people had voted by early evening. That is more than the entire count of ordinary ballots in the previous election when polls closed at 10 p.m., according to the Central Elections Committee, which publishes turnout figures throughout the day and is chaired by Justice Noam Sohlberg.
The exact 6 p.m. tally was 4,892,186 voters. Arutz Sheva gave the figure as 4,892,106. In all, 7,331,981 Israelis are eligible to vote. They are choosing among 36 lists at 12,018 polling stations to fill the 120-seat Knesset.
For anyone in Israel who has not yet voted, the lines are real but moving. Sohlberg said waits at some polling stations had reached 15 to 20 minutes. Dean Livne, the committee's acting director-general, urged patience. He stressed that anyone who reaches a polling station before 10 p.m. will be allowed to vote, even if the ballot is cast after closing time. Intercity bus routes longer than 15 kilometers are free for the day, as are Israel Railways trains.
"By 6 p.m., we have surpassed the number of people who voted by 10 p.m. in the previous election," Livne said. Ynet reported that his comparison leaves out double-envelope ballots, which are counted separately. Compared with the 2022 pace, the nine-point gap amounts to a relative increase of 15.6%.
