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Aug 19, 2019
cameras in polling stations and invalidating parties from running
The Likud has been trying to implement a plan to install cameras in election polling stations in Arab neighborhoods, claiming this will prevent fraud that is widespread in those areas. This has bene hotly debated and is going back and forth between the electoral board officials between those who support it and those who do not. Some say it will prevent fraud while others say it will dissuade people from voting.
Personally I have no problem with cameras in the polling stations. We have cameras following us our entire lives nowadays, why not also in the polling stations? I would be fine with it as long as it does not harm the authenticity of the secret ballot - meaning, the camera cannot be installed in a way that would remove secrecy from the actual vote and reveal what the voter is voting. As well, the cameras should not be installed in selected areas, chosen by one party or by one side of the political map. If cameras are to be installed, they should be installed in polling stations throughout the country. Let everybody come under the same scrutiny, and if there is a suspicion or accusation, the cameras can be checked.
On another note regarding elections, there have been numerous attempts to appeal to the electoral board to invalidate various party lists form running in the elections, for a variety of reasons, usually claiming some sort of racist bias held by the party in question.
I think there should be a cost to appealing against another parties validity to run. If you can prove that they are invalid and your claim is accepted, all is good. If, however, your claim is rejected and you did not "make your case" well enough to invalidate the party you were trying to invalidate, you should be fined somehow - not monetarily but some sort of black mark on your own party - maybe lose a spot, someone gets knocked off the list, or something like that. It should cost the party something to attack another party like that.
What made me think of this is the attempt to invalidate Otzma Yehudit. Initially it was fine, but after the case was lost and the electoral board said Otzma can run, now parties are appealing the decision and still trying to invalidate them. And there are other parties appealing against other parties just because they don't like them, not for any reason that is likely to be accepted.
The parties are using the electoral board as a tool to tie parties up and keep them busy with nonsense, and this should not be allowed. You want to appeal against another party? Fine, but either make your case or you will lose out so it better be worthwhile and not just a way to distract each other.
Personally I have no problem with cameras in the polling stations. We have cameras following us our entire lives nowadays, why not also in the polling stations? I would be fine with it as long as it does not harm the authenticity of the secret ballot - meaning, the camera cannot be installed in a way that would remove secrecy from the actual vote and reveal what the voter is voting. As well, the cameras should not be installed in selected areas, chosen by one party or by one side of the political map. If cameras are to be installed, they should be installed in polling stations throughout the country. Let everybody come under the same scrutiny, and if there is a suspicion or accusation, the cameras can be checked.
On another note regarding elections, there have been numerous attempts to appeal to the electoral board to invalidate various party lists form running in the elections, for a variety of reasons, usually claiming some sort of racist bias held by the party in question.
I think there should be a cost to appealing against another parties validity to run. If you can prove that they are invalid and your claim is accepted, all is good. If, however, your claim is rejected and you did not "make your case" well enough to invalidate the party you were trying to invalidate, you should be fined somehow - not monetarily but some sort of black mark on your own party - maybe lose a spot, someone gets knocked off the list, or something like that. It should cost the party something to attack another party like that.
What made me think of this is the attempt to invalidate Otzma Yehudit. Initially it was fine, but after the case was lost and the electoral board said Otzma can run, now parties are appealing the decision and still trying to invalidate them. And there are other parties appealing against other parties just because they don't like them, not for any reason that is likely to be accepted.
The parties are using the electoral board as a tool to tie parties up and keep them busy with nonsense, and this should not be allowed. You want to appeal against another party? Fine, but either make your case or you will lose out so it better be worthwhile and not just a way to distract each other.
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We can tell the cameras in voting stations are not to prevent fraud, because there's been no talk at all about putting them in Haredi neighborhoods. This is not Haredi-bashing; this is a reference to the several municipalities who had to have a second election because the first was found to have been contaminated by fraud. IIRC, all of them were Arab and Haredi.
ReplyDeleteit is to prevent Arab fraud, that doesnt help the Likud (or, that hurts the Likud). Haredi fraud doesnt hurt the Likud so the Likud isnt bothering to deal with it
DeleteI never thought of it that way. I think it makes the whole idea worse: you can cheat, as long as it's in my favor. Is that better or worse than straight-up racism?
Deletehow many people were convicted of your so called Hareidi fraud in Beit Shemesh?
ReplyDeleteAvi, you know nothing but Chareidi bashing so of course it was...
How many Arabs were convicted of election fraud?
DeleteSorry if facts don't favor your favorite sports team. Er, I mean religion.
DeleteWhen I was a scrutineer for an Ontario election, we were banned from using our binders because they were blue. We had them replaced with white binders. A scrutineers job is to oversee without interfering with the integrity of the election.
ReplyDeleteI am not aware of any evidence of cameras being an effective means of preserving the integrity of the vote. If it is then the Central Elections Committee should be responsible for it's oversight and implementation. Likud wouldn't be investing millions of shkalim to do the job of CEC unless they felt that they would get reasonable return on their investment.
I am not sure if they think the fraud is from the voters or from the Arab scrutineers/oversight who miscount the votes intentionally and/or stuff ballot boxes in their stations ..
DeleteIf that is the real fear, why is Likud shelling out to address the alleged problem? The Government (lead by Likud)should be taking responsibility to make sure the CEC and run fair elections.
Deleteehwhy,
Deletebecause the cec doesn't do it's job, and never has. everyone who works in the industry knows for instance that there was widespread fraud in the kibutzim and moshavim, but it was considered acceptable. however the arabs overplayed their hand by actually counting more votes in total than the number of people assigned to a particular voting box. that's why the likud is offended by the arab cheating but not by the charedim or kibutzim (that both cheated historically in the same way, by voting on behalf of people who are real voters but weren't going to vote for whatever reason) but never exceeded the total number of voters allowed to vote.
So voter fraud that helps Likud is OK and voter fraud that doesn't must be stopped?
DeleteThat doesn't change what I was saying. Likud's efforts to 'stop election fraud' is a partisan move to help win the election. If they really cared about the integrity of the election, this would be fixed at the Government level. Bibi is the countries longest serving Prime Minister. He has had plenty of time to implement changes, especially after the do over municipal elections 5 years ago.