Israeli Election Day -- In San Francisco
By Joe Eskenazi in Government, Politics
Friday, Jan. 30 2009 @ 8:00AM
 |
| Eytan Elterman |
| Deputy Consul General Ishmael Khaldi casts his ballot |
While most San Franciscans' experiences with voting take place in local firehouses or school auditoriums, our international residents don't exactly line up outside a family's flag-festooned garage.
I watched Financial District cafes do a brisk business in 2007 on the morning a large line of chatting French nationals -- lots of scarves -- cast their ballots for le prochain président. Yesterday's San Francisco election to determine who will take up Israel's reins was a strikingly different affair.
First of all, since an exposed queue of Israelis along the street outside the consulate would likely be a prime target for protesters, the voters each traveled past a doorman up to the 23rd floor of 456 Montgomery and through a metal detector. Since Israeli rules strictly limit overseas voting to diplomats and those on national business abroad, this wasn't as cumbersome a process as one might think -- between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Thursday, 31 Israelis showed up to vote. This was, according to Deputy Consul General Ishmael Khaldi, not a bad turnout.
"Many of them live in other parts of the state, but they traveled here," he said. "The first ones came early, at five to nine. And the last one came at 10 to eight in the evening."
After the polls closed, the box pictured above was sealed and shipped to Jerusalem. There it will be opened on Feb. 10 -- Israeli election day -- and its contents tallied.
While the three major parties are Kadima, Labor, and Likud, even Khaldi admitted he's not sure how many parties there are these days ("I honestly can't remember. I think it's 15."). Voters simply place the name of their preferred party in the box. The 120 seats in the Israeli parliament (the Knesset) are divvied out according to the percentage of vote each party receives, and the leader of the party receiving the most votes has the opportunity to form the next government as the nation's prime minister.
So, again, for an election involving the selection of the nation's parliament and prime minister among 15 parties (or more), all the voter is asked to do is put a name in a box. Perhaps Americans could learn from this. I asked Khaldi if he was familiar with the terms "butterfly ballot" or "hanging chads."
He was not. Good for him.
After the polls closed, the box pictured above was sealed and shipped to Jerusalem. There it will be opened on Feb. 10 -- Israeli election day -- and its contents tallied.
While the three major parties are Kadima, Labor, and Likud, even Khaldi admitted he's not sure how many parties there are these days ("I honestly can't remember. I think it's 15."). Voters simply place the name of their preferred party in the box. The 120 seats in the Israeli parliament (the Knesset) are divvied out according to the percentage of vote each party receives, and the leader of the party receiving the most votes has the opportunity to form the next government as the nation's prime minister.
So, again, for an election involving the selection of the nation's parliament and prime minister among 15 parties (or more), all the voter is asked to do is put a name in a box. Perhaps Americans could learn from this. I asked Khaldi if he was familiar with the terms "butterfly ballot" or "hanging chads."
He was not. Good for him.
2 comment(s) / Post a Comment
foam order.com
