Elections committee plans live broadcast of vote count to dispel conspiracy theories

Director says aiming for ‘most transparent election ever,’ warns enemies aiming to preemptively ‘delegitimize’ results, urges public to only trust official sources of info

The acting director of the Central Elections Committee said Sunday he is planning a live broadcast of the vote-counting in the upcoming election, part of a push to increase public trust in the process and the results.

Dean Livne told the Israel Hayom conference in Jerusalem that he aims to ensure the national vote in October is “the most transparent election ever.”

One step to achieve that, he said, is to broadcast the count conducted at the Knesset on election night — when officials of the CEC aggregate the results from polling stations around the country to produce the final national tally.

“Anyone who wants to watch will be able to do so. I will also livestream the room where the double-envelope ballots are stored,” he said. “There are between 600,000 and 700,000 double-envelope ballots, and anyone who wants to see how they are handled will be able to watch live on our website.”

Double-envelope ballots are cast by members of security forces, prisoners, hospital patients and staff, diplomats serving abroad, residents of senior citizen and assisted living facilities, and people who voted at polling stations for those with physical disabilities.

“It may be a bit boring” to watch, Livne said, “but anyone entertaining one conspiracy theory or another will be able to see that there is absolutely no basis for them.”

Livne stressed that there is “no” way an election could be rigged, but said the danger is that the public could believe otherwise.

“There are now advanced technological tools that make it much, much easier to convince people that what happened didn’t happen — and that the opposite did,” he said.

Livne warned that Israel’s enemies hope to sow discord and “preemptively delegitimize the election results.”

He urged the public to rely only on official sources for information about the elections.

“If someone says to you that a voting station was closed, don’t believe what you received on WhatsApp or by phone,” he warned. “Take a look at our website, and we will tell you the truth.”

Last month, Livne put forward a proposal for new safeguards against AI-generated political misinformation in the run-up to the coming elections, set to be held no later than October 27.

Livne presented the Knesset Constitution Law and Justice Committee with a plan under which campaign content would have to be clearly identified as having been generated or manipulated using AI. The measure would not prohibit the use of artificial intelligence in political messaging, but it is intended to increase transparency and prevent disinformation.

However, he opposed a suggestion from ruling Likud party MK Amit Halevi, who called for installing cameras in polling stations to deter voter fraud.

Livne rejected claims of widespread voter fraud, insisting the existing safeguards were sufficient.

“There is no fraud in Israel. If it exists, it is on the margins,” he said. “I can refute these conspiracy theories, one after another.”

The CEC announced in January that it was establishing a dedicated team in conjunction with the Shin Bet to examine concerns about AI influence on the election.