Election Tidbits As We Wait

By 8pm the percentage has reached 59.7%. Kol hakavod chaverim (friends)

I have been out on the street a bit, in between falling trees and pelting rain and in my mixed but very traditional neighborhood, Lieberman is still a high choice. Almost everyone I speak to says that they don't care so much for the leader of the party they voted for, but voted for the party platform. I find that interesting, as in America, people are truly swayed by the personality of the party leader.

Tonight, I even met my first Meretz voter. When I told him that, we laughed. He is a young man I have known for awhile, but I didn't know his political persuasion. He told me his thoughts and they were very intriguing - they caused me to stop and think about a lot of issues. His reasoning was not without wisdom and I am really glad he said what he did....in short, he expressed some very valid points for voting Meretz. Whether or not Meretz actually expresses these views in their platform is something I will need to investigate, but I liked what O. said.

One sweet election story comes from the Bedouin village of Rahat... home of the IDF NCO, the Bedouin tracker, who was killed at the Kissufim crossing a few weeks ago. It seems the storm knocked out their electricity, but the community was determined not to let that deter their voting. Between candles and the light of cell phones, they are continuing their voting. According to a Ynet report, one polling station official joked that the candles and cell phones were "... creating a very intimate atmosphere."