OK, I promised a series of posts on politics, and I should hurry.

[real_skeptic]

...because our national elections are due in less than 40 days.

OK. Since most of my friends here are not Israeli, I should start with a general overview of the political system in Israel. It should be more or less familiar to the Europeans among you, and a little less to the American ones.

Comments

[saminz]

So - you have to actually go to a polling station to vote? No sending these lists to your home so you can choose one in peace and send it back by letter?!

Sounds a bit nasty from here...
(We get a fattish booklet of lists to choose from. You're asked to either take one of the party lists offered or use the empty one and make up your own. Then you put this list into an envelope, seal that, then sign your personal voter's card and put both card and envelope into a bigger envelope. So this assures both your right to vote PLUS anonymity of your actual choice.)

I like your tale about the dead voters. Sure sounds quaint ;-D.
Then again: WTF?! Don't you guys keep any accounts of citizens, dead or alive? Isn't it mandatory to tell any authority when someone dies? How long does it take to get them off the list of actual, living citizens?
(Here: 24 hours, max. All else is illegal and will be fined severely.)

Thanks for your report!
I wasn't aware that Israel doesn't have any "regions", for example. This probably simplifies things a lot.

[real_skeptic]

The problem is that the dead can't be stricken off the voters' book very quickly. I think the computer records are updated very soon, but the voters' book is prepared 40 days in advance, allowing people to appeal it etc, so they can't make changes to it by law

[saminz]

You sure have a "skeptical" view of your fellow men