Don’t forget to vote!

Nation heads to polling stations today for municipal elections

More than six and a half million Israelis are eligible to vote in some 11,000 polling stations across the country in Tuesday’s municipal elections.

Tuesday is a work holiday and most polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. to increase turnout. Unlike in Knesset elections, 17-year-olds are eligible to vote, and some 270,000 Israelis will be eligible to cast a ballot for the first time.

Most results will not be available until Wednesday, especially in the close races that are expected in Jerusalem and in other cities nationwide. If no candidate receives 40% of the vote, a run-off race among the top two candidates will be held on November 13, which is not a work holiday.

Voters will cast two paper ballots: One for mayor and one for city council, except in 28 communities where incumbent mayors are running unopposed, like Modi’in and Mevaseret Zion.

The candidates vying to replace Nir Barkat in the Jerusalem race ganged up against city councilman Moshe Lion on Monday, in an effort to prevent him from winning a spot in the run-off race against city councilman Ofer Berkovitch.

Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin accused Lion’s campaign of sending tens of thousands of text messages to Jerusalem residents comparing Elkin to Gargamel, the villain in the Smurfs cartoon. Deputy mayor Yossi Daitch accused Lion of offering him a rotation in the mayor’s office if he would quit the race and endorse Lion.