Israel’s Central Elections Committee is considering live-streaming the vote-counting process during the next national election, attorney Din Livne, who heads the committee, said on Sunday.
The move is being considered as an attempt to strengthen public confidence in the results, Livne said.
Speaking at the Israel Hayom Conference, Livne said his committee is aiming to hold “the most transparent elections ever,” even as he argued that large-scale election fraud is “impossible” in Israel.
“We are considering broadcasting the vote-counting operation in the Knesset live on the internet,” he said.
“Anyone who wants to watch will be able to do so. We will also livestream the secure storage vault containing the ballot envelopes. 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.”
Livestream could quell conspiracy theories before they form
Livne noted that while the broadcast would admittedly be quite boring, the livestream could quell conspiracy theories before they form.
Livne also stated that it would be impossible for elections in Israel to be falsified, as they are conducted “at the highest level of integrity.”
However, while the ballots themselves cannot be falsified, Livne acknowledged that voters should be wary of large-scale intellectual manipulation.
“Don’t believe what you receive on WhatsApp,” he warned.
“Today there are advanced technological tools that make it much easier to convince people that what happened didn’t happen, or that the opposite happened.”
One effort the committee has taken to prevent the spread of misinformation has been urging voters to rely solely on official sources when looking for details on where to vote and who is running.
“If someone tells you a polling station has been closed, don’t believe what you received on WhatsApp or over the phone. Check our website – we will tell you the truth,” he stressed.
“If someone tells you that a particular candidate has withdrawn, announced they are no longer running, or endorsed another candidate, don’t believe it. Come to us.”
Curiously, Livne stated that to show the committee’s commitment to secrecy and protecting the voters’ right to privacy, any voter who reveals how they voted after leaving the booth will be sent back behind the curtain by polling station officials to cast a new ballot.
‘Only the election integrity supervisor is allowed to photograph in the polling station area’
It is unclear if this is a new directive, but no current legislation prohibits voters from discussing who they voted for at any time during the process, even while actively casting their vote.
Additionally, Livne commented that “only the election integrity supervisor is allowed to photograph in the polling station area.”
However, despite Livne’s concern of undermining the integrity of the elections, he clarified that he did not feel one specific demographic or party would be more likely to commit fraud; rather, the fear stems from Israel’s neighbors.
“The truth is, I wasn’t referring to a party at all,” he said. “The State of Israel is surrounded by enemies. We have major enemies, some of them very powerful. Their goal is to weaken Israeli democracy and the State of Israel from both outside and within.”
“I am very concerned about that,” he added, acknowledging that outside influences would benefit from damaging trust in Israel’s democratic process. “We are working, together with the security authorities and other bodies, to prevent it.”
First Israeli election since conception of ChatGPT
As the first iteration of ChatGPT launched mere weeks after Israel’s last election, Livne noted that this coming October will be the country’s greatest challenge against misinformation yet.
“In November 2022, Sam Altman launched ChatGPT and changed the world,” he said.
With the advancements in artificial intelligence, falsified statements and even videos pose a real threat to the democratic process, as generated media could be used to sway and manipulate voters.
Livne stated that to combat this, the Elections Committee is pursuing several initiatives, including legislation that would require AI-generated or AI-altered content to be clearly labeled or be removed by the committee.
He noted that the committee has already received a high number of petitions to remove generated election propaganda.
“We’ve already surpassed, in my opinion, by around 20 petitions, the total number of election propaganda petitions filed in the last Knesset election – we’re not even within the official 90-day election period yet,” he said.
“That doesn’t concern me at all. Yes, there are more proceedings – but we’ll deal with them one by one.”
