Israel Election 2026 — Election Day Briefing: Polls, Parties & the Race for 61

Election night, hour by hour

All times Israel time (IST, UTC+2). Exit polls are surveys, not results.

—

until polls close at 22:00 and the exit polls land

07:00

Polls opened across Israel (08:00–20:00 in localities under 350 voters, hospitals, prisons and care homes). Election day is a public holiday.

600k+

“Double-envelope” ballots expected — soldiers, diplomats, patients, prisoners — a record haul worth roughly 15 seats, counted from 29 Oct.

86.7%

Turnout among Israel's emissaries abroad, who voted 15–16 Oct at 101 stations in 99 embassies and consulates — 17 points above 2022.

07:00 · Polls open

Voters choose one paper slip — a party list, not a candidate or a prime minister. Roughly half a million Israelis vote for the first time; tens of thousands have flown home because there is no general absentee vote.

22:00 · Exit polls

The moment stations close, Kan 11, Channel 12 and Channel 13 publish rival exit polls. In a race this tight — and with the threshold this cruel — treat them as a first sketch, not a verdict.

~01:00 · Count begins

The Central Elections Committee starts publishing counted ballots polling station by polling station. By around 08:00 roughly 90% should be in and most seat projections settle.

29 Oct · Double envelopes

The 600,000+ special ballots are verified and counted. They routinely move one or two seats — enough, this year, to redraw the whole coalition map.

4 Nov · Official results

The CEC certifies the final count (full tally expected by ~30 Oct). President Isaac Herzog then consults every faction and hands one MK the mandate to form a government.

Counting schedule per the Central Elections Committee as reported by Reuters, Israel National News and The Petek's election-night guide. This page is a dated briefing snapshot — see “Follow it live” below for the official count and live broadcasts as the night unfolds.

The final polls: five surveys, one deadlock

Last polls published Fri 23 Oct, before the legal blackout on new surveys until polls close.

Seat projections compiled from the final surveys as tabulated by The State of Israel — Israel Polls 2026 and reported by Haaretz, the Jerusalem Post and Maariv (23–25 Oct 2026). Polls are estimates with sampling error, not results. Two further surveys told a different story: Channel 14 (22 Oct) gave Netanyahu's bloc 62 seats and a DRI survey published the same week gave it 60 — a reminder that in Israel, who commissions and broadcasts a poll is part of the story. See “Reading the Israeli media” below.

Build a coalition: the road to 61

Uses the Channel 12 final poll. Arithmetic only — real coalitions also need parties willing to sit together.

0 / 120 seats Select parties below — 61 needed to govern.

0▲ 61 — majority line120

No parties selected yet. Tap parties to add them to your coalition.

Why the presets stall where they do: the change bloc's leaders have ruled out governing with the Arab lists, Bennett has ruled out repeating his 2021 partnership with Ra'am, Yisrael Beytenu rules out Netanyahu, the Haredi parties and the Arab parties alike — and a majority of Israelis, per JPPI polling, oppose a Likud + change-bloc unity government. The arithmetic is easy; the politics is the puzzle President Herzog inherits on 4 November.

The race for prime minister

Israelis vote for lists, not leaders — but two men dominate this election.

Incumbent · Likud

Benjamin Netanyahu, 77

Prime minister since Dec 2022; 19 years in the job across three stints — longer than anyone in Israel's history

Runs on security under the slogan “No Surrender”: no Palestinian state, no Gaza pullback until Hamas is disarmed, no role for the Palestinian Authority in postwar Gaza — with billboards pairing him with Donald Trump, who suggested over the weekend that the US would act on Iran again only if Netanyahu stays. Still on trial for corruption, which he denies, and resisting a state commission of inquiry into 7 October. His final-weekend problem: his own bloc sits at 50 in the three main TV polls, and Ofer Winter's breakaway right-wing list is burning right-wing votes below the threshold.

Path to 61: needs defections, a threshold rescue — or the Channel 14 picture to be right

Challenger · Yashar (ישר — “Straight/Honest”)

Gadi Eisenkot, 66

Former IDF chief of staff; founded Yashar in 2025; lost his son Gal in combat in Gaza

The political outsider as security hawk. Eisenkot served in Netanyahu's war cabinet, quit in 2024 over the conduct of the war, and built a one-year-old party into the final polls' largest list. His pitch is calm competence and accountability: a judge-led state commission of inquiry into 7 October, universal conscription enforced by court order, and a constitution to end the judicial-reform wars. Working-class Moroccan roots and a bereaved father's biography stand in deliberate contrast to Netanyahu's decades in office. His problem: even winning the night leaves him five or more seats short — and he has ruled out the Arab lists that could close the gap.

Leads Netanyahu 49–41 on “best suited to be PM” (Maariv final poll)

Kingmakers-in-waiting · B'Yachad (ביחד — “Together”)

Naftali Bennett, 54 & Yair Lapid, 62

Two former prime ministers — one right-wing, one centrist — on a single joint list

The odd couple who ousted Netanyahu in 2021 are back as one list: Bennett the former commando and tech millionaire, Lapid the former TV anchor and Yesh Atid leader. Together (B'Yachad) campaigns on healing a traumatised country and “you serve, you get” on the draft. At 14–15 seats they cannot lead a government, but no change government forms without them — and Bennett has publicly ruled out repeating his 2021 coalition with the Islamist Ra'am, narrowing Eisenkot's options further.

Bennett edges Netanyahu 45–43 head-to-head (Maariv)

The secular right · Yisrael Beytenu

Avigdor Lieberman, 68

Former defence minister; draws heavily on ex-Soviet immigrant voters

Once Netanyahu's close ally, now among his sharpest critics — and hawkish even by the standards of the right. Lieberman's eight seats are courted by everyone and promised to no one: he rules out Netanyahu, the Haredi parties and the Arab parties simultaneously, which makes him both kingmaker and spoiler in almost every coalition scenario.

8 seats in every final poll — the most stable number of the campaign

The rebuilt left · The Democrats

Yair Golan, 64

Former general; merged Labor and Meretz into The Democrats in 2024

Famous nationally for rescuing civilians under fire on 7 October, Golan leads the only Zionist party openly keeping a two-state horizon alive. The Democrats would reverse the judicial overhaul and bar indicted politicians from office. At 8–10 seats they are the change bloc's left anchor — and too left for some of the partners Eisenkot needs.

8–10 seats; the bloc's ideological left edge

The far-right flank · Otzma Yehudit & Religious Zionism–Zehut

Itamar Ben-Gvir, 50 & Bezalel Smotrich, 46

National security minister and finance minister in the outgoing government

Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”), polling 7–8 seats and surging among young voters, runs on the death penalty for terrorists and sovereignty over the West Bank; Smotrich's joint list with Moshe Feiglin's Zehut adds free-market economics to the same sovereignty platform. Running separately this time — Netanyahu failed to re-merge them as he did in 2022 — they are indispensable to any Netanyahu government and unacceptable to any other.

Combined 13–16 seats; Netanyahu's non-negotiable partners

Who should be prime minister? The final head-to-heads

Suitability polling, final pre-election surveys. Different pollsters, different questions — shown side by side, not averaged.

Maariv · Eisenkot

49%

Maariv · Netanyahu

41%

Kan 11 · Eisenkot

44%

Kan 11 · Netanyahu

38%

Maariv · Bennett

45%

Maariv · Netanyahu

43%

Every list that matters

Channel 12 final poll (23 Oct) vs seats won in 2022. 38 lists are on the ballot in total.

List	Leader	Bloc	What it stands for, in one line	Ch.12 poll	2022
Yashar ישר	Gadi Eisenkot	Change	Security-first centrism: 7 Oct state inquiry, universal draft, a constitution, no Palestinian state.	23	— (new)
Likud הליכוד	Benjamin Netanyahu	Netanyahu	“No Surrender” security platform; continue judicial and media reform; government-picked 7 Oct panel, not a state commission.	21	32
B'Yachad (Together) ביחד	Naftali Bennett & Yair Lapid	Change	Joint list of two ex-PMs: national healing, assertive security, “you serve, you get” on conscription.	15	24*
The Democrats הדמוקרטים	Yair Golan	Change	Labor–Meretz merger: reverse the judicial overhaul, bar indicted politicians, keep two-state separation open.	10	4*
Joint List הרשימה המשותפת	Hadash–Ta'al–Balad	Arab lists	Arab-majority alliance: minority rights, ending the Gaza war, fighting crime in Arab towns. Ban overturned by the Supreme Court on 2 Oct.	9	5*
Shas ש״ס	Aryeh Deri	Netanyahu	Sephardi Haredi party: protect yeshiva exemptions and religious status quo; withdrew its ministers in July 2025 over the draft bill, yet stayed in the coalition.	8	11
Otzma Yehudit עוצמה יהודית	Itamar Ben-Gvir	Netanyahu	“Jewish Power”: death penalty for terrorists, West Bank sovereignty, Jewish settlement in Gaza, voluntary Palestinian emigration.	8	14†
Yisrael Beytenu ישראל ביתנו	Avigdor Lieberman	Change	Secular hard right: universal conscription, civil marriage, “decisive outcomes” against Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.	8	6
United Torah Judaism יהדות התורה	Yitzhak Goldknopf / Moshe Gafni	Netanyahu	Ashkenazi Haredi alliance: Torah study as a national value, no sanctions or quotas on yeshiva students. Quit the coalition in July 2025 over the draft.	7	7
Religious Zionism–Zehut הציונות הדתית	Bezalel Smotrich & Moshe Feiglin	Netanyahu	Sovereignty and settlement growth in Judea and Samaria, continued judicial reform, free-market cost-of-living policies.	6	14†
Ra'am רע״ם	Mansour Abbas	Arab lists	Islamist, pragmatic: community development and budgets for Arab towns; made history by joining the 2021 coalition; open to government again.	5	5
People of Israel (Amcha Yisrael) עמך ישראל	Ofer Winter	Netanyahu	Ex-general's religious-Zionist list: Haredi conscription, judicial reform, 7 Oct accountability. Below the threshold in all three main final polls — the coalition's wasted-vote nightmare. Winter: “We are running all the way.”	0 (3.0%)	— (new)
Reservists–Economic המילואימניקים	Yoaz Hendel & Yaron Zelekha	Non-aligned	Reservists' protest list with an economic-reform wing: burden-sharing for those who serve. Crosses the threshold only in the Kan and Maariv polls (4 seats); below it in Channels 12 and 13.	0 (2.8%)	— (new)

* Predecessor lists: B'Yachad compares with Yesh Atid's 24 seats in 2022; The Democrats with Labor's 4; the Joint List with Hadash–Ta'al's 5 (Balad ran separately in 2022 and missed the threshold). † In 2022 Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit ran as one joint list and won 14 together. Full final-poll table: thestateofisrael.com/polls; party platforms summarised from the Jerusalem Post, Israel365 News and AIJAC's election fact sheet.

The six fights that decided this campaign

Survey data: Israel Democracy Institute, JPPI and Channel 12, Sep–Oct 2026.

68%of Jewish Israelis say 7 October is a central factor in their vote (IDI, Sep 2026)

Accountability for 7 October

The opposition's core demand is a judge-appointed state commission of inquiry into the failures before the Hamas attack — the kind of inquiry Israel has held after every major war. Netanyahu has resisted it for three years, preferring a government-appointed panel, as reports he received warnings beforehand (which he denies) kept the question at the top of the agenda. Post-election polling shows majorities want the inquiry, prime-ministerial term limits and an attempt at a constitution.

~⅔of Israelis oppose restoring blanket draft exemptions for Haredi Torah students (JPPI)

Who serves? The Haredi draft

After years of mass reserve mobilisation, the exemption of tens of thousands of yeshiva students became the election's most explosive domestic question — it broke the outgoing coalition in July 2025, when UTJ quit and Shas pulled its ministers. Every opposition list, plus Winter and Hendel, demands universal conscription with sanctions; the Haredi parties reject quotas outright. For Jewish voters, 27% rank it a top-two issue.

39%of Jewish voters rank security a top-two factor — No. 1 on the right (AIJAC/IDI)

Security, Gaza and Iran

There is broad consensus on the post-7 October doctrine — pre-empt threats, keep freedom of military action — and no leading party backs a Palestinian state now. The fight is over Gaza's endgame: Likud conditions any further pullback on Hamas disarming and rejects a Palestinian Authority role; the far right wants military control and Jewish settlement; the centre is open to Arab or international administration. Iran hung over the final weekend, with Trump tying future US action to Netanyahu's survival.

38%of Jewish voters rank the economy a top-two factor — No. 1 in the centre (AIJAC/IDI)

Cost of living

War spending, inflation and months of reserve duty away from jobs and businesses pushed prices level with security as a voting issue; Channel 12's final poll found it the single most important issue for 21% of voters, ahead of the draft (17%) and 7 October (14%). Netanyahu's final-weekend suggestion that Israel prepare an economy able to withstand banking sanctions was publicly rejected by the Bank of Israel.

71%supported adopting a constitution in a Dec 2025 poll — a Bennett campaign centrepiece

The courts and democracy

The 2023 judicial overhaul never went away: the right wants to continue it (override clause, political judicial selection), the opposition wants it reversed and is campaigning on a constitution with clear rules for passing and repealing Basic Laws. Yashar, Yisrael Beytenu and the new Zionist Home–Reservists alliance all back a constitution; JPPI finds about half of Jewish Israelis favour broad judicial reform — from opposite directions.

53.5%of Arab voters rank crime in Arab society their top issue — ahead of the economy, 46% (AIJAC/IDI)

Crime, and the Arab vote

For Israel's Arab citizens — about a fifth of the electorate — organised crime and gun violence in Arab towns outrank everything. It matters nationally, too: the Joint List and Ra'am hold a projected 14–16 seats, Arab turnout is expected to rise sharply from 2022, and those seats are the only arithmetic bridge to 61 for the change bloc — if its leaders ever agree to use it. The Supreme Court's unanimous 2 Oct decision reinstating both lists, after the Elections Committee voted to bar them, made this a campaign issue in itself.

After the count: how a government is born

Finishing first guarantees nothing. Ask Naftali Bennett, who became PM in 2021 with a faction of six.

Consultations at the President's Residence

Once results are certified on 4 Nov, President Isaac Herzog meets every elected faction and asks who they recommend for prime minister. The leader with the most recommendations usually — not always — gets the first mandate.

28 days + 14 to build 61

The chosen MK has 28 days to assemble a coalition, extendable by 14 (the “42 days” of Israeli political folklore). Ministries, budgets and policy red lines are traded party by party; surplus-vote partners and threshold survivors suddenly hold veto power.

Confidence vote — or a second mandate

A government takes office by winning a Knesset confidence vote; strictly, it needs more votes for than against, so outside support or abstentions can sustain a minority government. If the first candidate fails, Herzog can hand the mandate to another MK, or 61 MKs can unite behind one.

Deadlock means Netanyahu stays — for now

If nobody forms a government, the Knesset can dissolve and Israel votes again. Until a successor is sworn in, the outgoing government continues as a caretaker administration — a route by which Netanyahu could remain prime minister for months without winning the election.

Scenario A — Netanyahu holds on

Needs: 50 (main polls) → 61, or the Channel 14 / i24 picture

Requires either the right-leaning pollsters to be right, Winter's voters to come home at the ballot box, or post-election defections — individual MKs or a faction peeling off the change bloc. Netanyahu has survived worse arithmetic before, and the caretaker fallback rewards patience.

Scenario B — Eisenkot governs with Arab support

Change bloc 52–56 + Ra'am 5 (outside support) = 57–61

The only clean mathematical path for the change bloc — and the one its leaders have publicly disowned. Mansour Abbas has signalled openness to government; Bennett has ruled out a Ra'am partnership; Eisenkot has ruled out forming a government on Arab-list support under current conditions. Watch for the softer variant: Arab parties abstaining or supporting a confidence vote from outside without joining the coalition.

Scenario C — National unity government

Likud + Yashar + Together = 59 in Ch. 12 — add any small party to pass 61

The establishment's favourite answer to deadlock, and the voters' least favourite: JPPI polling finds a majority oppose a Likud + largest change-party government. It would likely require a rotation agreement for the premiership — the device that made and broke the 2021 government.

Scenario D — Nobody gets there

Two failed mandates → Knesset dissolves → election No. 7 since 2019

Israelis voted five times between 2019 and 2022 before the outgoing Knesset finally ran a full term. Every party publicly swears this cannot happen again; the final polls say it arithmetically can. Threshold stragglers and the double-envelope count on 29 Oct will decide which scenario is even available.

The 2022 result — what everyone is measured against

Final CEC allocation, Nov 2022: Netanyahu's bloc won 64 seats and formed Israel's most right-wing government to date on 29 Dec 2022. Turnout was 70.6%.

The Knesset that just ended

At dissolution on 17 Jul 2026 (Al Jazeera / CEC reporting): the coalition had shrunk to exactly 60 — one short of a majority — after wartime entries and exits (National Unity in and out, New Hope in, UTJ out over the draft). The 25th Knesset was the first since 1988 to serve its full four-year term, and the 37th government the first to complete a full term since 1973.

Follow it live: the Israeli media map

Every major Israeli newsroom, grouped by language and outlook — including the social feeds where Israeli news breaks first.

Television & radio — Hebrew

Exit polls at 22:00 come from the first three

Kan 11 — public broadcaster. Exit poll by Kantar. Stream: Kan app & YouTube; radio on Reshet Bet.
Channel 12 / N12 — Keshet's commercial leader; Midgam exit poll. Israel's most-watched election night.
Channel 13 — Reshet; HaMadad exit poll. Third of the three classic exit polls.
Channel 14 — right-wing, pro-Netanyahu. Its final poll (bloc: 62) diverged sharply from the other channels — watch its election-night framing accordingly.
i24NEWS — broadcasts in English, French and Arabic from Jaffa; Direct Polls survey (Likud first, 26).
Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) & Kan Reshet Bet — rolling radio coverage all night.

Hebrew press & digital

Where most Israelis actually read politics

Ynet / Yedioth Ahronoth — Israel's biggest news site; centrist, Netanyahu-critical.
Haaretz (הארץ) — left-liberal broadsheet; English edition below. Broke down both final TV polls seat by seat.
Maariv (מעריב) — Lazar Research final poll (Netanyahu bloc 48) and the PM head-to-heads.
Israel Hayom (ישראל היום) — free right-wing daily, historically pro-Netanyahu.
Walla!, N12, Mako — high-traffic portals; Globes & Calcalist for the economic angle; TheMarker (Haaretz's business arm).
Kikar HaShabbat & Behadrei Haredim — Haredi-sector news, essential for reading Shas/UTJ moves.

English & Arabic

For following from outside Israel

The Times of Israel — the reference English live-blog; election coverage hub linked below.
The Jerusalem Post — English-language right-of-centre daily; ran the four-poll final comparison.
Haaretz English, Ynetnews, Israel National News (Arutz Sheva) — left, centre and religious-right in English.
+972 Magazine / Local Call (שיחה מקומית) — independent left, Hebrew/Arabic/English.
Arabic Israeli media — Kan's Makan 33, Panet, Bokra, and i24NEWS Arabic: follow Arab turnout and the Joint List / Ra'am count here first.
On X & Telegram — Israeli news breaks on X (Kan News, N12, Channel 13, Times of Israel, Haaretz) and on Hebrew Telegram news channels hours before it reaches wire copy; party leaders campaign on TikTok and WhatsApp channels. Treat social posts as claims until a newsroom confirms them.

Live results & polling average — The State of IsraelElection hub with the 10-poll average, bloc tracker and live-results page for election night. Election coverage hub — The Times of IsraelEnglish-language reporting and live updates from Israel's newsroom of record for international readers. Israel Votes 2026 tracker — AIJACPoll tracker, outgoing-Knesset breakdown and an independent coalition builder for cross-checking the numbers above. Election-night seat count — The PetekLive seat count on election night (27 Oct, 21:00–03:00 Israel time), updated from Central Elections Committee publications. 2026 Israeli legislative election — full referenceCandidate lists, surplus-vote agreements, campaign timeline and the complete opinion-polling archive.

Reading the Israeli media: the poll is part of the politics

The five final surveys in Section 02 fall into two families. The three public/mainstream commercial broadcasters — Kan 11 (Kantar), Channel 12 (Midgam) and Channel 13 (HaMadad) — independently put Netanyahu's bloc on exactly 50 seats and Yashar first. The right-leaning outlets told their audiences a different race: i24NEWS (Direct Polls) put Likud first with 26 and the bloc on 59, while Channel 14 (22 Oct) gave the bloc a governing 62, and a DRI survey the same week gave it 60. Pollsters differ in sampling and in how they allocate undecideds, and past Israeli elections have humbled every firm — which is precisely why this page shows all of them, labelled, instead of blending them into a single reassuring average.

Latest news: the final 96 hours

Compiled Tue 27 Oct 2026, 09:28 Hong Kong time (03:28 in Israel), from Israeli and international wires.

TUE 27 OCT
Election day

Netanyahu's political survival on the line as Israel votes

Reuters' election-day framing leads Israeli and world front pages: after 19 years in office, Netanyahu faces a vote widely treated as a referendum on his record since 7 October — while Eisenkot tells voters the choice is accountability and a country that can heal. Polls open 07:00–22:00; exit polls at close; official results 4 Nov.

Source: Reuters reporting, summarised by The Indeks

MON 26 OCT

“Everyone says they're winning. Their fears reveal the battle.”

The Media Line's eve-of-election dispatch from Eisenkot's final rally — where Yashar's Matan Kahana predicted “over 30 mandates,” double his party's poll numbers — captures both camps' real anxieties: turnout, wasted votes below the threshold, and the alliances nobody wants to name. Netanyahu, meanwhile, spent the weekend on the Iran card and Trump's endorsement; Eisenkot charged him with fear-mongering.

Source: The Media Line via SRN News

SUN 25 OCT

Final Maariv poll: Netanyahu bloc slips to 48 as Winter falls short

The last poll of the campaign (Lazar Research for Maariv) moved the Netanyahu bloc down three seats in a week to 48, against 54 for the change bloc — blaming Ofer Winter's People of Israel, stuck at 3.0%, just under the 3.25% threshold, for burning right-wing votes. Netanyahu's camp pressed Winter to quit the race; Winter refused: “We are running all the way, and we will cross the electoral threshold,” citing internal figures of 180,000+ backers.

Source: Jerusalem Post — final-poll comparison

FRI 23 OCT

Three TV exit-eve polls agree: 50 for Netanyahu, deadlock for all

Kan 11, Channel 12 and Channel 13 published the campaign's final television surveys within hours of each other — Netanyahu's bloc on exactly 50 in all three, the change bloc on 52, 56 and 54, the Arab lists on 14–16 — then the legal blackout on publishing new polls began at 23:59. Yashar led Likud in all three; the Hendel–Zelekha Reservists crossed the threshold in only one (Kan).

Sources: Haaretz · Votendi poll comparison

THU 2 OCT

Supreme Court unanimously reinstates the Arab lists

The High Court overturned the Central Elections Committee's votes to bar Ra'am and the Joint List, ruling the evidence did not meet the legal threshold for exclusion — a decision both opposition and Arab leaders called a guardrail moment for Israeli democracy, weeks after the committee had also declined to disqualify The Democrats, Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism. Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh withdrew after signals his own disqualification might be upheld.

Source: Al Jazeera election explainer

15–16 OCT

Emissaries vote early — and turn out in record numbers

Israelis posted abroad by the state — the only citizens who may vote outside Israel — cast ballots at 101 stations in 99 embassies and consulates: 4,218 voters, 86.7% turnout, 17 points above 2022. Separately, the nonpartisan Fly&Vote initiative registered 33,000+ expatriates planning to fly home to vote in person, drawing legal threats from Netanyahu's camp; a High Court petition by some 100 voters struck from the rolls as non-residents was dismissed on procedural grounds on 2 Sep.

Source: Times of Israel elections hub

Voting today? The essentials

Central Elections Committee rules for the 27 Oct 2026 vote.

A voter casting her ballot into a blue ballot box at an Israeli polling station, election officials seated behind protective screens — Inside an Israeli polling station: one slip, one envelope, one blue ballot box bearing the state emblem. File photo: Flash90 via NEWSru.co.il.

Who can vote, and do I need to register?

Every Israeli citizen aged 18+ on election day who was in the Population Registry with a residential address on 3 Sep 2026. There is no registration — the Interior Ministry built the roll from the registry, and you vote at the station assigned to your registered address. Bring an official photo ID.

What exactly do I mark?

Nothing — Israel votes with pre-printed paper slips, one per list, each bearing the list's Hebrew letter code. You take one slip, seal it in the envelope provided behind the screen, and drop it in the box. Any extra slip or marking can invalidate the ballot.

Can I vote from abroad?

No postal or absentee voting exists. Only state emissaries (and their spouses and children up to age 20) voted at missions abroad on 15–16 Oct. Everyone else must vote in person in Israel — which is why tens of thousands of expatriates fly home for election day, a public holiday with free intercity public transport in past elections.

What are “double-envelope” ballots?

Soldiers, police, diplomats, hospital patients, prisoners and others voting away from their home station use a sealed double envelope so officials can verify eligibility without breaching secrecy. A record 600,000–650,000 are expected this year — roughly 15 seats' worth — counted from 29 Oct, and they regularly shift a seat or two.

When will we know who won?

Exit polls at 22:00 tonight are projections, not results. The CEC count runs through the night (about 90% by ~08:00 Wednesday), the full tally is expected by 30 Oct after double envelopes, and official results are certified on 4 Nov. Forming the government — the part that actually decides the prime minister — can take up to six more weeks.