America will vote on Tuesday – or more precisely finish voting – in an election viewed by many as the most important in US history. The real campaign, however, is only just beginning – not just because of a system that essentially puts the outcome in the hands of presidential electors (who will only vote in December) but due to real concern that this time the election results will become more ambiguous as time passes.

Both parties and both candidates are already preparing for the war of attrition in the courts. For all intents and purposes, the legal battles have already begun with various petitions. But there is one thing we can already praise – the massive voter turnout in these historic elections under the black cloud of the coronavirus.

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Tens of millions of people have already voted early (over 96 million of the 150 million people expected to vote). This means that as of Monday, we've seen more than two-thirds of the entire 2016 turnout.

The record-breaking turnout in some states illustrates the extent to which America's character is on the line. Elderly folks in Pennsylvania, where I've been the past two days, have seen a thing or two in their time but never something like this. Add corona to that list. And it's all happening at once.

The shuttered and barricaded businesses in Philadelphia, New York, Washington and Los Angeles are indicative of the considerable tensions on the eve of the election. Many fear a Trump victory will undoubtedly unleash another wave of violence by his opponents.

Hostility is in the air in numerous places because both sides feel the results won't be accurate, that there will be voter fraud, and that a legal battle is inevitable (President Trump even said at a rally on Sunday that the moment the election ends he will "send in his lawyers" to review swing-state votes).

It's entirely uncertain we'll have a clear winner by Wednesday or even the weekend. In Pennsylvania, from a legal standpoint, vote counting cannot start until actual Election Day and many districts will only begin counting after voting stations close – which is why officials have already said the result will likely only be declared on Thursday.

Florida has already begun counting its votes, but the already considerable turnout, together with the fact that it sits in two time zones, will extend counting into the night – and if it's a close race, officials will of course wait for all the mail-in ballots before declaring a winner.

Even The Atlantic, which isn't among Trump's supporters, to put it mildly, cautioned that "small-town white Americans" could "offset his losses elsewhere." Everyone believes that the polls are once again out of touch.

Trump's "blitz" is also insane: 14 rallies in three days. On Sunday he concluded a rally far past midnight, and on Monday he continued his charge across four more states: North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. In those states, he asserted that despite the coronavirus pandemic, he is the only one who can march America forward.

I attended Trump's rally in Scranton on Monday. He came to this city to remind everyone that he is a "Scranton boy," even though his rival, Biden, was born there. Trump's message: Biden abandoned you to become a typical Washington phony, served as a member of the elite establishment for 47 years and didn't save your industries and jobs, while he, Trump, is like them.

The Jewish vote

At the rally, Trump didn't pull punches, lambasting the "fake and corrupt" media and big-tech, which "controls the media and the politicians."

"We're going to win Pennsylvania," he guaranteed. Many people wearing kippot were also in the crowd along with Chabad emissaries who came from New York, Levi and Mendel. A group of "Jews for Trump" in the crowd shouted "We love you," firing up those around them. "Don't make me cry," he told them. Who would have believed that in Scranton of all places Jews would be so prominent?

Mordechai and Abraham came from New Jersey and Detroit just to attend the rally. "God will bless him for moving the embassy to Jerusalem. He is a blessed president," says Abraham. His friend, Mordechai, says he doesn't understand Jews who don't vote for Trump. Other Trump supporters in attendance railed against the perception that they don't wear masks. "This entire claim that we don't wear masks at rallies is a lie," they said.

The president vowed to defend their "sacred faith and values" and that America will remain energy independent. He also intimated that if he wins, he will fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with whom he has publicly butted heads over the corona crisis.

Biden spent a portion of his last day on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, this time with Lady Gaga, which led the Trump campaign to immediately remind people that the pop star opposes oil shale drilling in the state and will therefore help Biden erase thousands of jobs. Biden was also in Cleveland, Ohio, while his deputy, Kamala Harris, made a final push in Pennsylvania.

Biden's message on the final day of the race was one of a new horizon for Americans, and not just about disappointment in Trump over the pandemic. "The power to change the country is in your hands," he told the people in Cleveland.

Either way, last month's vote to appoint Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, which was the first time in 150 years that not one senator from the minority party voted in favor, showed the degree to which America is divided. That was merely a symptom, however, of how tribal America is today.

We wish our beloved America that on Election Day, Tuesday, or whenever the results are announced, that people remember the founding fathers strived for unity, and that one civil war has already been fought and we don't need another one.

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Here are some images from the first few hours of Election Day 2020:

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On Wednesday, small business owners were slated to hold an emergency meeting in the Knesset to demand that work proceed as usual on Election Day, rather than the public having the day off.

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If the election is held as expected on March 2, 2020, it will be the fourth national day off in less than a year, including the day municipal elections were held.

The meeting, which will be chaired by MK Keren Barak (Likud), is scheduled to discuss a report prepared by economist Dr. Roby Nathanson for the Lahav-Israel Chamber of Independent Organizations and Businesses, which shows that a day off will cost small and mid-size businesses 2.5 billion to 3 billion shekels ($7.2 billion-$8.6 billion).

The report has prompted organizations representing small businesses to demand that Election Day be a regular workday. MKs Miki Zohar (Likud) and Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu) have already submitted a bill to cancel the traditional Election Day "holiday."

The bill would need to pass with a majority vote of 61 MKs, which is unlikely.

The head of the Central Elections Committee has opposed the cancellation of the day off, arguing that it would make it difficult to find people to staff polling places. In the last election, the CEC budget was increased by 12% and stood at some 320 million shekels ($92 million).

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According to data from Shva, which operates national credit card payment processing systems, starting from 10 a.m. Tuesday, credit cards were already in heavier use than usual, with a number of credit card transactions similar to what is typically seen on Fridays, when most Israelis don't work.

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The three hours from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. saw a 20% increase in credit card use compared to Tuesday, April 9, the date of the election for the 21^st Knesset.

Over 7,500 credit card transactions per minute were logged between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., with over 450,000 transactions that day.

Shva said that in anticipation of Election Day shopping, the company had brought on extra staff.

Arnon Toren, CMO of the Azrieli Group and manager of the Azrieli Center, said, "By early afternoon, over 220,000 people had visited the group's shopping malls. We expected that by the end of the day, about 1 million people will visit our malls, 3.5 times the traffic we see on a regular day."

Hazahav Mall in Rishon Lezion saw an all-time high number of 60,000 visitors on Tuesday. On April 9, 52,000 people visited Hazahav Mall.

Hazahav Mall CEO Yossi Lagziel noted that the mall saw twice the number of sales it sees on an ordinary weekday.

The Café Café restaurant group announced that its 15 chains of cafes and restaurants saw nearly a 200% increase in customers compared to a regular weekday.

"We scheduled larger staffs than usual ahead of time, and most of the traffic was in shopping centers. The [chain's] cafes and restaurants were jam-packed, which led to longer wait times for tables," said the owner of the Café Café Group Ronen Nimni.

"Our franchisees reported that the busiest hours were from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the most popular order was the 'Israeli breakfast,'" Nimni added.

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Immediately upon learning that the New Right faction had not passed the 3.25% electoral threshold when the election came to a close on April 21, New Right leader Naftali Bennett criticized the committee and defamed its work. Mistakes had been made in the counting of ballots, Bennett claimed, and a thorough examination would find the party making up the 1,452 votes it needed to make it into the Knesset. Attorney Orly Adas, a member of the committee for the past 31 years who since 2010 has served as its CEO, responded to Bennett's request and issued a recount. But the recount found the opposite to be true: New Right had in fact been given three votes too many.

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Bennett's criticism really hurt Adas, who at a press conference at the conclusion of the election broke out in tears.

"Our focus here is on the power of the ballot, but we have experienced the full extent of the power of the word, the power of an unbridled attack that arrived at our doorstep and that we had to fight off, including the relentless statements casting doubt on the integrity of the committee and the professional staff," she said after the press conference. "All this was unfortunately done without thinking for even one minute that behind all this are male and female employees of the election committee. We are all flesh and blood, public servants in the full sense of the word."

But before Adas could recover from the election and learn the necessary lessons, the Knesset decided to dissolve and hold a repeat election. Alongside the preparations for the Sept. 17 election, the courts, the police, and the media continued to focus on allegations of electoral fraud in the election that had just recently wrapped up. Amit Halevi, No. 36 on the Likud party's list for the upcoming Knesset, petitioned the Jerusalem District Court, claiming the protocols of some 50 polling stations where there had been suspicions of voter fraud should be re-examined, and that, should these suspicions be found to be valid, he should enter the Knesset instead of the No. 8 on United Torah Judaism's list. A representative from the State Attorney's Office said in one of the discussions that the police were investigating suspected electoral fraud at 29 polling stations, and examining another 107 polling stations at the request of Likud MK David Bitan.

The question of whether to install cameras at polling stations has also accompanied the Central Elections Committee since April. In that election, the Likud brought cameras into polling stations in Arab communities without the committee's approval. When Committee Chairman and Supreme Court Justice Hanan Melcer was informed of what had happened, he banned the filming of polling stations. Around two months ago, representatives from a few parties filed petitions to the committee chairman on the installation of cameras. The committee held a lengthy discussion on the topic, and ultimately, Melcer came to the conclusion that parties would not be authorized to install cameras at polling stations and that their systematic use required the Knesset pass special legislation on the matter.

At the time, Melcer instructed Adas to act immediately to establish a unit of inspectors to be employed by the committee and armed with body cameras. This unit was only to take action in exceptional circumstances. They would not be allowed to record the polling station while voting was underway unless there was reasonable suspicion that a criminal offense was being committed at the ballot box and only with the approval of the election committee chairman. Melcer further ordered the footage be transferred to the police of the committee's legal advisers only, and that their transfer to other officials and/or publication in the media would constitute a criminal offense. It was also determined that once the ballot box had been locked, the supervisors would use body cameras to record the entire ballot-counting process.

At a cost of 15 million shekels ($4.2 million), the committee recruited some 3,000 people (2,000 from the broader public and around 700 representatives from the Israel Bar Association and another 300 accountants) to ensure electoral purity. All of these observers have received training and will be equipped with sophisticated body cameras that meet police standards.

Increased oversight

For Melcer, it was important that the decision to enlist supervisors have the support of all the members of the committee presidium, which includes representatives from the Likud, Shas, Blue and White, and Labor parties. He had members, among them Bitan, sign a document that states: "The committee believes that this framework provides a satisfactory arrangement for all the reservations raised and that taking another path could impair the purity of the elections and the proper order of the elections."

But the government did not suffice with the committee's use of supervisors. It asked to expand the possibility of filming at ballot stations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought what has been referred to as the "camera bill" for government approval earlier last week. He said that "the proposed law determines that cameras will document the polling hall and not the vote behind the screen. The secrecy of the vote will be strictly maintained. There is no need for special preparation, special training, or special equipment. Every observer can record video with their cellular phone. That is, after all, what happens in every public space: Everyone films … every grocery store is documented with cameras. So the voting hall, of all places, cannot be filmed? Cameras at the polling stations ensure election purity. [This] is simple, fair, transparent and just."

On Monday, the government intended to begin with a lightning-speed legislative process at the Knesset that would see the law pass the three necessary readings in the Knesset in three days. But things took an unexpected turn when Yisrael Beytenu did not lend a hand to the effort, the legislative process was stalled for 48 hours, and ultimately, the proposal did not pass the first reading.

On Tuesday, the spotlight was once again on the Central Election Committee, after Netanyahu said he was about to make a "dramatic announcement." Many claimed the announcement was just an excuse to use the public stage for election propaganda. One member of the committee told Israel Hayom that Melcer was wrong to allow the announcement to be broadcast on all the TV channels and radio stations without first examining its content.

"Instead of making a brave decision, as Justice Mishael Cheshin did when he cut off Ariel Sharon's speech when it became election propaganda, Justice Melcer decided to pass the 'hot potato' on to the media and determined they would assess whether the message was of significant news-informational value in real-time. And should they reach the conclusion that his remarks constitute election propaganda, they would stop the live broadcast at their own initiative. Some of the media outlets did, in fact, do this, but without a doubt, this was the job of the Election Committee chairman."

Deputy committee chairman on behalf of Labor-Gesher Sami Shushan says that despite the pressure exerted on members at times, the committee does its job faithfully.

"There are certain political elements that unjustly attacked the committee and tried to harm its credibility, but I am not a partner to their criticism. I believe the committee and Justice Melcer at its head, together with CEO Orly Adas, are doing a serious … job as far as concerns preparations ahead of the election. Moreover, despite the committee being comprised of political people – representatives of all the parties – I must note that it is run with integrity and fairly."

"Despite the political differences of opinion that I have with coalition representatives, we succeeded in reaching a unanimous agreement on the subject of observers of electoral purity. There is no doubt that the team of election committee members is working very hard, out of a sense of responsibility and the [significance of the] mission."

Anything but another election

At any rate, polling stations across the country are set to open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. With the Elections Committee wrapping up its final preparations, Adas told Israel Hayom, "In the current election campaign, a few changes and innovations have been brought in that are aimed at increasing inspection and supervision of the election results in order to minimize as much as possible fears that mistakes [will be made]. Nevertheless, the means of inspection will lengthen the time [it takes to] count ballots, which could go on for five to six hours longer than the previous elections. And the assessment is that the final results will not be released before Wednesday evening or Thursday morning."

The committee is set to employ some 45,000-50,000 people on Election Day. Nineteen regional committees responsible for voting and ballot counting at some 11,000 polling stations will be working across the country simultaneously. This is in addition to the standard polling stations, some 230,000 soldiers, hospital patients, prisoners and Israeli representatives in embassies abroad (who cast their ballots last week). The total cost of the election stands at 329 million shekels ($93.2 million).

With a smile, Adas tells Israel Hayom, "I very much hope that the next election will be held on time, in another four years, and not in another few months, as was the case this time."

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Many attribute that victory to the blitz of interviews Netanyahu gave on Election Day, as well as the unforgettable warning that "the Arabs are flocking to the polls." In 2019, Netanyahu did it again and closed the lead polls had predicted that Blue and White would keep over the Likud – this time, by broadcasting a live feed on his Facebook page.

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But this time, Netanyahu won't be alone. The other parties learned their lessons and intend to fire back on Election Day, but they mean to focus not on the rivalry between blocs, but on internal strife within the bloc.

While Likud and Blue and White will try to collect as many seats as possible at the expense of the other parties in their respective blocs, the smaller parties will take advantage of the final day to drive home the message that it isn't the size of the party that matters, but the size of the bloc.

According to one Likud official, "In general, the Likud doesn't comment on its campaign, and the plan for the final stretch is under wraps and known to only a few very workers at the campaign headquarters, who have signed secrecy agreements."

However, we do know that the Likud will be investing millions, mostly in identifying clusters of potential – a process of data analysis that has been underway for two months already. The Likud will be integrating figures from the field with information from social media and cellular phones in an attempt to deploy targeted ads at specific sectors.

We also know that because of the battle with Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman, heavy resources will be invested in bastions of Yisrael Beytenu voters, including hostels and retirement homes, including free rides to the polls on Election Day.

Blue and White

Blue and White is also getting reading for the election by using technology to identify potential voters, as well as a targeted campaign that will call on members of the left-wing camp to support the biggest center-left party, one that is capable of posing a challenge to the Likud government.

Last time, Blue and White attracted the support of many left-wingers, prompting them to abandon satellite parties like Meretz and Labor. This time, Blue and White will try to recreate their April success, but it comes after the rest of the left-wing parties already learned their lesson and are getting ready for a final Election Day push.

Blue and White campaign staffers have set up 200 headquarters nationwide to coordinate fieldwork. On Election Day, a Blue and White-branded bus will travel to various areas. Party activists will be assigned to 9,300 polling places to observe the voting and ballot count.

The Blue and White election office has divided the country into 26 zones, each of which is assigned to a Blue and White MK. A special "situation room" will be in operation from 6 a.m., with legal counsel, logistics coordinators, and computer techs.

The HQ will keep tabs on which voters have and have not voted, thanks to technology that will send the information to special staff who will spend the day calling potential voters.

The Democratic Union

The Democratic Union (the joint list comprising Meretz, the Israel Democratic Party, the Green Movement), for example, intends to run a scare campaign, not about the possibility of the party disappearing because it might fail to make it over the minimum electoral threshold, but about the possibility that "Israeli democracy might be obliterated."

Party leaders will speak out against Netanyahu and the Likud and accuse Blue and White of intending to join a Netanyahu-led government after the election.

The joint party plans to use technological means to find potential voters, all from the left-wing camp, and drive home the message that any party that does not declare that it will work to replace the Netanyahu government is not a viable option.

Labor-Gesher

In recent weeks, the Labor party has set up a special office to create a campaign for the last week of the election, as well as a special headquarters for Election Day itself. Labor party officials say that the last-stage campaign will include a surprise that will "shake up" politics – especially Blue and White. According to the officials, the campaign will keep Labor votes from migrating to Blue and White, and will also cause potential Blue and White voters to vote for Amir Peretz.

In addition to a special Election Day HQ, the party will be sending volunteers to knock on doors in strategic areas identified ahead of time to convince left-wing voters, as well as residents of the periphery, to throw their support behind Amir Peretz and Orly Levy-Abekasis. Labor officials are also saying that one of the sectors they will be focusing on is former supporters of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu party. The party says that this is the largest field operations program it has ever organized and that millions of shekels were invested in its activities.

Yamina 

Yamina (formerly the United Right, the joint list of Habayit Hayehudi, the National Union-Tkuma, and the New Right) is also gearing up to fire back at the Likud's last-minute efforts at scaring voters. The list plans to station about 1,000 volunteers at polling places to give the party visibility. The list will make use of existing databases from its constituent parties. Yamina is planning a campaign of phone calls to urge supporters to go out and vote.

To thwart any attempt by Netanyahu to siphon off votes on Election Day, Yamina does not plan to wait until the last minute and is already planning to convince voters that the size of the bloc, not the party, will be the deciding factor in the election.

Yamina leader Ayelet Shaked said, "This time, Netanyahu is starting to try and siphon off votes from the [other] right-wing parties early, and that allows us to make our voters able to withstand the intense messages that will flood in on Election Day, and realize that the size of the bloc, not the biggest party, is what will decide."

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It seems that now, as a result of Israel holding two elections within a number of months, Palestinian employed in Israel are set to reap tens of millions of shekels in direct and indirect income as a result of the sabbatical in the Israeli market.

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According to the UN's International Labor Organization, some 127,000 Palestinians are employed in the Israeli labor market. Although a majority of these workers are ineligible to vote in the September election, they will nevertheless enjoy the sabbatical day afforded to employees by Israeli law.

The average Palestinian worker in the Israeli labor market earns 291.55 shekels ($81.52) a day. In total, Palestinian workers earn NIS 37 million ($10 million) every day. Assuming the election will be a sabbatical day, in addition to the previous sabbatical afforded to employees when the election was last held in April, Israeli business will pay Palestinian workers over NIS 70 million ($19.5 million).

"Business was also good on the last Election Day in Israel," a Palestinian merchant in a shopping mall in Ramallah told Israel Hayom. "Many Palestinians who work in Israel and had a vacation day came with their family and kids, and the stores were full.

"As far as we are concerned, Israel can hold elections every month," he said.

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