Voter turnout in Israel's parliamentary election continued to shatter records Tuesday, reaching 66.7% by 6 p.m., compared with 57.7% at the same hour in the previous election, according to the Central Elections Committee. The figure marks the highest turnout ever recorded at that stage of Election Day.
The nine-percentage-point difference represents a relative increase of 15.6% compared with the corresponding hour in the November 2022 election. With nearly 4.9 million Israelis having cast their ballots, the country is seeing an exceptional surge in voter participation.
Gallery
More than 4 million vote as Israel election turnout breaks records
(Photo: AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
"By 6 p.m., we have surpassed the number of people who voted by 10 p.m. in the previous election," said attorney Dean Livne, acting director-general of the Central Elections Committee. He clarified that the comparison excludes special double-envelope ballots, which are counted separately.
The milestone means that the absolute number of ordinary ballots cast by early Tuesday evening had already surpassed the corresponding total recorded when polling stations closed in the previous election. The comparison concerns the number of voters, rather than the percentage of eligible voters, which is also affected by the size of the electorate.
The latest figures continued a trend of unusually high participation throughout the day. By 4 p.m., turnout had reached 55.7%, compared with 47.5% at the same hour in 2022, an increase of 17.2% relative to the previous election's pace. More than 4 million Israelis had already voted at that point.
Earlier, turnout reached 44.9% by 2 p.m., compared with 38.9% four years ago. Election officials said the participation rates were the highest recorded at those respective hours since comparable records began in 1973.
Umm al-Fahm
(Photo: AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Bnei Brak
(Photo: AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Long lines and record participation across Israel
The surge brought long lines to polling stations in several cities, including Ra'anana and Ramat Gan. Some voters reported unusually lengthy waits, while election officials said the high turnout was contributing to delays as polling station workers verified voters' identities.
Central Elections Committee Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg said waits at some polling stations had reached 15 to 20 minutes. Livne urged voters to remain patient, stressing that anyone who arrived before the scheduled 10 p.m. deadline would be allowed to cast a ballot, even if voting continued beyond that hour.
Participation was also high among military personnel. According to the IDF, 68% of eligible service members had voted by 5 p.m., compared with 65% at the same hour during the previous election.
At the Jalame military base south of Afula, unusually heavy demand forced the IDF to deploy an additional polling station after soldiers reportedly waited more than two hours to vote. Other soldiers reported waits of approximately 90 minutes at a base in central Israel.
The military said it had prepared for high turnout by operating more than 850 fixed polling stations, alongside mobile voting stations serving troops in the field, and was deploying additional facilities where necessary.
Meanwhile, severe weather created difficulties for some voters in southern Israel. Flash floods blocked sections of Route 90 in the Arava region, leaving residents of communities near Neot HaKikar, south of the Dead Sea, unable to reach their polling stations.
Residents called for authorities to reopen the road or extend voting hours to allow them to cast their ballots.
Hebron
(Photo: Ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP)
Where is turnout highest?
A breakdown of turnout by locality revealed substantial differences across the country. In Timorim, a community near Kiryat Malakhi in southern Israel, turnout had reached an extraordinary 91.6% by 4 p.m., the highest figure reported in the committee's local data at that time.
Among major cities, turnout stood at 50.4% in Tel Aviv, 47.7% in Jerusalem, 46.2% in Haifa, 50.9% in Rishon LeZion and 52.8% in Petah Tikva. Ramat Gan recorded 52.9%, while Rehovot reached 54%, Bnei Brak 53.3% and Ashdod 50.4%.
Other cities recorded 48.5% in Holon, 46.8% in Be'er Sheva, 41.5% in Netanya and 40% in Bat Yam. Among Arab-majority localities, Rahat reported particularly high participation at 60.6%, compared with 48.3% in Shefa-'Amr, 46.7% in Nazareth and 41.7% in Umm al-Fahm.
The local figures reflect turnout as of 4 p.m. and are not directly comparable with the updated nationwide figure for 6 p.m.
Political parties clash over extending voting hours
As turnout continued to climb and long lines persisted, a political dispute intensified over whether polling stations should remain open beyond the scheduled 10 p.m. closing time.
The Central Elections Committee scheduled a meeting for 7:15 p.m. Tuesday to discuss, among other matters, requests by coalition parties to extend voting hours. The decision rests with committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party submitted a formal request to extend voting beyond 10 p.m., citing heavy turnout and long waits at polling stations.
The proposal gained support from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, headed by Aryeh Deri. Ofer Winter's Amcha Yisrael party also joined the request, calling for voting hours to be extended by an additional hour.
Opposition parties rejected the proposal. Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar! party, Naftali Bennett's Beyahad party and the Democrats, led by Yair Golan, all opposed extending voting beyond the scheduled closing time.
Yashar! said it "strongly opposes" Likud's request, arguing that there was no exceptional circumstance warranting such a decision.
"No exceptional incident has occurred that would justify approving the request, which is intended to lay the groundwork for claims against the integrity of the election, following the lies Netanyahu has been spreading since this morning," the party said in a statement.
Election officials stressed that the request to extend voting hours was separate from the existing rule allowing anyone who reaches a polling station before 10 p.m. to vote, even if they only manage to cast their ballot after the official closing time.
The committee had not announced a decision on the request in the updates available for this report.
Why the final results could take until Thursday
A total of 7,331,981 Israelis are eligible to vote in the election for the 26th Knesset, with 12,018 regular polling stations operating nationwide. Most are scheduled to close at 10 p.m., when television networks traditionally release their exit polls.
However, the final results could remain uncertain until Thursday afternoon. More than 650,000 special double-envelope ballots are expected from soldiers, diplomats, displaced residents, voters with disabilities and others voting away from their registered polling stations. These ballots require separate verification and counting.
The unusually high turnout could also have significant political consequences, particularly for smaller parties attempting to cross Israel's 3.25% electoral threshold. The threshold itself remains fixed, but as the total number of valid votes increases, so does the absolute number of votes a party needs to enter the Knesset.
With several parties potentially finishing close to that threshold, special ballots could alter the final distribution of seats and change the balance between rival political blocs.
Election officials expect the full count to be completed by Thursday afternoon, meaning the final allocation of seats may remain unresolved well beyond election night.
As Israel approaches the scheduled closing time, the unprecedented voter participation has already reshaped the scale of the election. Whether it also changes the political outcome will become clear only when the final ballots are counted.
First published: 17:11, 10.27.26