Israel begins counting up to 480 thousand double envelope votes

Israel's Central Elections Commission has started counting the so-called double envelope ballots from the election for the 26th Knesset, The Times of Israel reported, citing the commission. The count got under way overnight, while results from ordinary polling stations were still coming in, according to the head of the news desk at N12, the Israeli television channel.

In an update distributed by its spokesperson's office and published by News.co.il, the commission estimated that between 430 and 480 thousand outer envelopes would need to be processed. It stressed that the figure was an estimate rather than a final number, and that work on receiving and checking the envelopes was continuing. Political commentator Amit Segal, writing on his Telegram channel, gave the same range and said the count was expected to start during the night and finish the following evening.

What a double envelope vote is

Most Israelis vote at a single assigned polling station near their registered address. Voters in certain categories who cannot do so, such as soldiers on duty and patients in hospital, cast their ballot elsewhere. Their ballot is sealed in an inner envelope, which is placed in an outer envelope carrying the voter's identifying details. That two-layer system is why these ballots are known as double envelopes, and why they are counted separately and later than the regular vote.

The commission's update described the process. Once scanning and verification of the outer envelopes is complete, the inner envelopes are removed and mixed together. The commission said the purpose of this step is to break any link between a voter's personal details and the way that person voted, preserving the secrecy of the ballot. The inner envelopes are then taken to a counting site set up in the Knesset parking area in Jerusalem.

The Central Elections Commission

The Central Elections Commission is the statutory body responsible for running national elections in Israel. It oversees polling stations, the registration of party lists and the counting and publication of results. The Knesset is Israel's parliament, and the current vote is the election for its 26th term, held on October 27, 2026, according to a photo caption in The Jerusalem Post.

Why the count matters

Because double envelope ballots are added only after the regular vote has been tallied, they can shift the final distribution of seats, particularly for parties close to the electoral threshold or for blocs separated by narrow margins. The Jerusalem Post reported that the bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding a lead ahead of the overnight count. The reports reviewed here do not give a seat breakdown for that lead.

N12 noted that the special ballot count is running in parallel with the continuing intake of results from regular ballot boxes, meaning that published figures were still moving on two tracks at once when the double envelope count began.

What the reports do not say

• None of the reports gives a final number of double envelopes. The commission described its range of 430 to 480 thousand as provisional.
• The reports do not break the envelopes down by category of voter, so it is not clear how many come from soldiers, hospital patients or other groups.
• The Jerusalem Post's report of a lead for the Netanyahu bloc is not accompanied, in the material available here, by seat figures or by any projection of how the special ballots might change the picture.
• Only Amit Segal gives an expected end point for the count, the evening after it began. The commission's own update, as published, does not state a completion time.
• No report says when the commission expects to publish official final results.