Israel’s High Court of Justice is set to review a petition from the Likud party challenging a Central Elections Committee ban on real-time reporting of voter turnout by party representatives inside polling stations. The petition hearing, scheduled for Wednesday before Justices Yael Willner, Alex Stein, and Khaled Kabub, may have significant implications for how political parties manage Election Day operations ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election on October 27.
The dispute centers on whether party-appointed polling-station observers can relay information identifying which voters have cast ballots, including details such as the time and type of polling station. The practice, employed by several election cycles, involves recording voter participation through digital applications. This data has been used by party campaign headquarters to target supporters who have yet to vote, facilitating election-day mobilization efforts.
Central Elections Committee Chairman and Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg issued the ban on August 4, subsequently denying Likud’s request for reconsideration on August 16. Sohlberg’s ruling emphasizes that information about voter participation constitutes personal data protected under Israeli privacy laws and cannot be shared without specific legal authorization. He underscored that party representatives’ official role is to supervise the voting process, not to gather data for electoral campaigning.
The prohibition applies uniformly to all political parties and covers any method of transferring voter participation data from polling stations to party headquarters. In place of this practice, the Central Elections Committee plans to publish aggregate turnout rates at each polling station at least four times throughout Election Day, though without disclosing any identifying details.
Likud contends that the ban represents a novel and abrupt restriction imposed mid-campaign, disrupting long-standing practices that parties relied on for election-day logistics and voter mobilization. The party also questions Sohlberg’s authority, arguing that his administrative oversight role does not extend to interpreting privacy legislation or forbidding party representatives’ conduct. Likud is requesting either the overturning of the ban or a delay in its application until a future election cycle.
Supporters of the prohibition, including the Central Elections Committee, the Attorney-General, and the Privacy Protection Authority, maintain that the ruling clarifies existing legal standards rather than introducing new ones. They argue that voter participation data entrusted to polling-station officials serves election administration purposes and should not be repurposed for campaigning. They also warn that digital storage and integration of real-time data pose heightened risks to voter privacy and data security.
Some factions have offered differing views. The Degel Hatorah faction of United Torah Judaism argues that identified reports help detect irregularities such as duplicate voting or errors, and assert that aggregated turnout figures provided intermittently are insufficient for proper oversight.
Other parties including Blue and White, Yesh Atid, Labor, and Yashar have expressed support for maintaining the ban. Labor emphasized that Likud was aware the legality of the practice was under review since January and therefore assumed commercial risks when arranging campaign strategies dependent on real-time data. Yashar suggested that blocking access to identified turnout information could level the playing field for newer political parties.
Unless the High Court issues a ruling to the contrary, Sohlberg’s prohibition on real-time reporting of identified voter turnout will remain for the October 27 election. The hearing will be livestreamed, offering transparency in a case with the potential to affect the conduct and oversight of electoral processes in Israel.