Covid-protected booths and the Democrator app: is Israel's 2021 election the future?

When plans for the 2021 elections in Israel were being drawn up, the idea of a successful vaccine was still a dream

A man casts his vote at a polling station at a polling station for people who are in quarantine for coronavirus in Jerusalem. EPA

An Israeli electoral worker, clad in full protective gear against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, stands behind a ballot box as a voter prepares to cast his ballot at a drive-in polling station for quarantined people in the northern coastal city of Haifa. AFP

An Israeli electoral worker, clad in full protective gear against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, waits as a voter registers before casting his ballot at a drive-in polling station for quarantined people in the northern coastal city of Haifa. AFP

A women votes for Israel's parliamentary election at a special drive-in polling station for people who are in quarantine for coronavirus, in Ramat Gan. AP Photo

An Israeli electoral worker dressed in a full protective gear waits as a Covid-19 patient casts his ballot at the Sheba Medical Centre in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. AFP

Israeli electoral workers dressed in full protective gear are pictured at a Covid-19 ward in Sheba Medical Centre in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. AFP

A hospital employee wearing PPE, watches while a patient in a ward for the treatment of the coronavirus disease, casts his ballot in a mobile ballot box as Israelis vote in a general election, at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan. Reuters

Israeli electoral workers dressed in full protective gear are pictured at a Covid-19 ward in Sheba Medical Centre in Ramat Gan. AFP

Hospital employees wearing PPE, adjust a mobile voting booth and box inside in a ward for the treatment of the coronavirus disease. Reuters

Holding an election anywhere in the world during a pandemic that has claimed almost three million lives was always going to be a challenge.

But even in Israel, where an effective vaccination campaign has resulted in Covid-19 infections plummeting – despite lockdowns being over for more than a month,  there are still precautions.

One innovation for the Tuesday poll is the drive-through voting booth, termed "vote and drive" by the Central Elections Committee.

Vulnerable citizens and those quarantining can vote without leaving their cars, under the system announced in December.

"The voter won't get out of the vehicle and a voting stand with ballots will be placed next to the car window," an election official told The Times of Israel when the plan was announced.

"He’ll then drive 1.5 meters and a ballot box will be waiting for him. If two people come together, for example a couple who are sick, one of them will be asked to get out of the vehicle."

Other precautions include increasing the number of voting booths by 30 per cent, compared to an election under normal conditions.

But for some voters, the situation was already as grim as it can be.

In Covid wards in some hospitals, election officials and health workers wore hazmat suits to bring voting boxes to patients.

The Democrator app

Drive-through voting is not the only innovation in the current election.

Israeli civil society organisation Darkenu has developed the Democrator phone app which can be used to send friends and family a message of encouragement to vote.

Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party has followed a more traditional approach, a door-to-door canvassing campaign called Likudelet – which mainly involves trying to identify people who had not voted in previous elections.

In that respect, much hasn't changed, despite the pandemic.

With Israel having approved an antiviral nasal spray to stop Covid, as well as demonstrating that vaccines are highly effective, voters can hope for a future  where  elections like this will be the exception, rather than the norm.