Likud, Bayit Yehudi/NRP/Jewish Home Primaries Miscounts?

One year we had to start outside since
we didn't have a key to  the building
where the voting was to take place.

Vote counting isn't easy. I've been running our local Shiloh Mazkirut "Town Council" elections almost every year for the past thirty years or so. We certainly have fewer votes to count than in the various Knesset polling stations (which I've also been part of here in Shiloh) or the party primaries. But I can certainly sympathize with those entrusted with the actual counting. First of all, it all happens late at night, when few of us are sufficiently alert to do a good job. And few people actually know what to do. I have my systems, which generally work in our small town.

inside the Likud Primaries polling booth

In Shiloh the elections are for voluntary posts which demand a lot of time, efforts and nothing much but public complaints in exchange. The party primaries are to give people the chance to be Knesset Members, a position with an above average salary, granted for some people it's a reduction, but for others it's more money than they had previously earned, and another aspect of the job is the chance to give other people jobs on the MK staff. And that's besides the actual status and chance to try to legislate change from the inside, rather than ranting from outside the government.

I may be wrong, but I think that the numbers of possible voters in the Likud and NRP aka Bayit Yehudi, Jewish Home are probably the most of any Israeli political party. That means that it is complicated and mistakes my be unintentional. Each polling station does its own count, and then the totals (and ballots) are brought to a main center where it's all calculated for grand totals. When recounts are needed. all the papers are there for a staff to do the job.

A lot has been in the news about both the Likud and Bayit Yehudi having impossible to be accurate results:

Bayit Yehudi to re-count primary votesand
Likud judge decides in favor of Hotovely

I wouldn't dare to guess whether something crooked really happened in either party's primaries. Since it's all done by "hand," the human factor means that it's easy to cheat and also easy to make an honest mistake.

If there was cheating, let it be proven and have the guilty, tried and punished.

And I also wish that political and elected government leaders be punished for saddling us with policies they campaigned not to rule by!