Will people with coronavirus be able to vote in the next election? That depends on who you ask: the professionals or the politicians.
During a Knesset debate on Tuesday, Central Elections Committee director-general Orly Adas said people infected with the virus would be allowed to go out and vote.
But Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the Health Ministry’s head of Public Health Services, said such a suggestion was incredible.
“Verified carriers can leave home only for an urgent medical emergency,” she said. “They cannot even go out for a funeral of an immediate family member. If people will know that verified patients are allowed to go to the polls, there will be those who will be afraid to go out to vote.”
According to Adas, “We can trust them to go out and vote and come back home.” Mail-in ballots do not exist in Israel, and “we do not want to see the repeat of the scenes we saw in the United States” of delays in counting mail-in votes.
“No, no, no,” Alroy-Preis said. “It is a significant danger to public health... Traveling by foot or by car to vote is not acceptable [for verified coronavirus patients].” What will happen on March 23? There are still 90 days to decide.