New immigrants thrilled to cast ballots in Israel, despite 'primitive' voting mechanism

Haaretz seems to have a talent for ferreting out negativity. All the new olim I know were charmed by the voting process and were exhilarated at being able to vote. End of story.

My understanding of these elections (and please coprrect me if I am wrong) is that the electoral system is purely proprtional by party so all a voter has to do is check the box for his/her preferred party for the Knesset. One further question do you hold elections for local government simultaneously with national elections. I really like the idea of a national holiday on election day - makes getting to the polls much easier than if it has to be fitted in around work.

Right... because the great system in the US ended up with Florida recounts because of paper piercings in the wrong place. And just in this past elections, people were complaining that the electronic kiosks insisted on choosing for them the candidate they didn't vote for. So laugh all you want at Israel's "primitive"system; It works like a pilot's checklist on an aircraft. In the meantime, people in Israel can pay for the parking meters with their cell phone and in America the latest technology is this ancient machine where you have to buy ticket and put it on your window. Get over it people.