Israel election turnout reaches 77.7%, the highest figure since 2001

Israelis voted in the 2026 election for the Knesset, the country's parliament, at the highest rate in a quarter of a century. Ynet reported that, according to the Central Elections Committee, 77.7% of eligible voters cast a ballot, which it described as the highest figure since 2001. The same report said that in Paran and Shaharut, every person entitled to vote did so.

For much of the day, turnout was running ahead of recent elections at every hourly checkpoint. Barak Ravid of Axios reported that turnout stood at 44.9% by 2 p.m., compared with 38.9% at the same point in 2022, and called it the highest at that hour since 1973. By 4 p.m. local time, Ravid wrote, the figure had climbed to 55.7%, which he again described as the highest since 1973. Ynet noted that the pace of voters arriving at polling stations slowed in the final hours before the polls closed.

How the count built through the day

Israel publishes running turnout figures during election day, so the public can follow participation hour by hour before any results are known. The reports available to us trace that progression:

• 2 p.m.: 44.9%, reported by both Axios and Israel Hayom, citing the Central Elections Committee.
• 4 p.m.: 55.7%, according to Axios.
• 20:41: 74.3%, according to the Telegram news channel Abu Ali Express, which added that about 5.5 million people had voted by then.
• Final figure: 77.7%, according to Ynet, citing the Central Elections Committee.

Axios said exit polls were due to be released when voting ended at 10 p.m. Israel time.

Sources differ on how high the turnout was historically

The reports agree on the 2 p.m. figure but describe its significance differently. Israel Hayom reported that the 44.9% reached by 2 p.m. was the highest in the country's history and characterised the election as seeing an all-time high turnout. Axios, using the same figure, described it as the highest at that hour since 1973, and an earlier Axios post put it as a 53-year high at the midpoint of voting. Those are not the same claim: one describes a record, the other the highest level in about half a century.

The final figure reported by Ynet adds a third frame. At 77.7%, it called the result the highest in 25 years, since 2001, rather than an all-time record. The difference likely reflects the slowdown in the last hours of voting that Ynet described, but the reports do not set out the historical comparison figures, so we cannot say how the final number ranks against earlier elections beyond what Ynet states.

What the Central Elections Committee does

The Central Elections Committee is the body responsible for organising and running Israel's national elections, including the operation of polling stations and the publication of official turnout figures and results. All of the turnout numbers in the mainstream reports here are attributed to it, either directly or, in the case of Abu Ali Express, without a stated source.

Paran and Shaharut

Ynet singled out Paran and Shaharut as places where turnout reached 100%. Both are small communities in Israel's sparsely populated south. Small localities with compact voter rolls are more likely than large towns to record complete participation, and Ynet presented them alongside figures from Israel's large cities, which are not included in the material available to us.

Who is reporting

Ynet is the news site of the Yedioth Ahronoth group, one of Israel's largest media organisations. Israel Hayom is a national daily newspaper with an English-language edition. Barak Ravid is a correspondent for the US outlet Axios who covers Israel; his figures here come from posts on X linking to his reporting. Abu Ali Express is a Hebrew-language Telegram channel that posts rapid updates on security and political news.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports give the total number of eligible voters, so the 5.5 million figure from Abu Ali Express cannot be checked against the percentage it accompanied, and it is attributed to that channel alone. The 4 p.m. figure of 55.7% comes only from Axios, and the 20:41 figure only from Abu Ali Express. The reports do not give turnout figures for earlier elections other than the 2 p.m. comparison with 2022, and they do not explain why participation rose. They also contain no results, no exit poll numbers and no information on which parties may have benefited from the higher turnout. Ynet refers to data from the large cities, but those figures are not in the material available to us.