70% of Undecided Voters: Voting on Religion and State

Pre-election polling shows that 67% of the Jewish public in Israel believes that issues of religion and state will greatly influence their vote, including 69% of secular votes and 91% of ultra-Orthodox voters. President of Hiddush Rabbi Uri Regev comments, "Ignoring the issues of religion and state on the campaign trail only lowers the quality of the discourse and it goes against the interests of the parties."

18/01/2013 11:58

Tags: elections · religion and state · undecided voters

Shas leaders Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Atias, and Aryeh Deri, at the kickoff of the party’s elections, Israel Convention Center. 11.03.2012. Photo: Yonatan Sindel, Flash 90

As candidates prepare for the final days of campaigning, the Smith Research Insitute has conducted polling for Hiddush to better understand where issues of religion and state stand in the minds of voters and to estimate how these issues influence their voting decisions. Overall, the polling results show that there is significant interest in the status of religion in Israel.

A sample pool of 500 Jewish adults was asked the following question on January 14th-15th, 2013: "How will issues of religion and state, like ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the army and civil marriage, influence your voting behavior in the upcoming elections?"

This is the breakdown of their responses:

"Issues of religion and state greatly affect my decision for whom to vote."

69% of the secular voters
64% of immigrant voters
91% of the ultra-Orthodox voters
81% of the Modern Orthodox voters
49% of traditional Jewish voters

70% of those surveyed still had not decided for whom they would be voting in the coming days but said that issues of religion and state would significantly influence their decision.

Ignoring these issues doesn't only affect the quality of the public debate and the information that the voters are receiving, It also goes against the interests of the parties from all over the political spectrum.

By breakdown of political parties, the following percentage of those polled said that these issues would greatly influence their votes:

90% of potential Meretz voters
96% of Shas voters
83% of United Torah Judaism voters
78% of Jewish Home voters
71% of Yesh Atid voters
63% of Labor party voters
56% of HaTnuah voters
48% of Likud Beiteinu voters

Rabbi Uri Regev, president of Hiddush, said in response to the results that, "it is a shame how poorly the issues of religion and state were discussed, except for the ultra-Orthodox draft, on the campaign trails. Ignoring these issues doesn't only affect the quality of the public debate and the information that the voters are receiving, It also goes against the interests of the parties from all over the political spectrum. It is clear that these issues will have a significant influence on the decisions of voters from all political camps and sectors, therefore it's crucial that they are aware of the positions of each list."