High Court of Justice Prohibits Parties From Receiving Information From Polling Stations About Who Has Voted

What the Court Ruled

The chair of the Central Elections Committee, Justice Noam Sohlberg, initially prohibited party representatives from providing party headquarters with information about the identities of those who had come to vote. The Committee plenum disagreed and allowed the previous practice to continue, but the High Court of Justice overturned that decision. The case number, date of judgment, and parties to the proceeding are not specified in the source.

The Legal Basis

The Court held that information about whether a person exercised the right to vote is personal information. The law does not expressly authorize party representatives to use such data to mobilize voters, and the Central Elections Committee has no authority to permit its transfer to political parties. Another rationale was the protection of the right to privacy.

How This Will Affect the Parties

In the past, the religious parties received detailed information from polling stations and contacted supporters who had not yet voted. It is now prohibited to use information obtained from the polling room for this purpose. United Torah Judaism is considering voluntary telephone reports from voters, activity by campaign workers outside polling stations, and assigning several dozen supporters to each campaign worker.

What Restrictions Remain in Force

Voters are not required to give campaign workers their names or confirm that they participated in the vote. The telephone system also does not make it possible to verify whether the caller actually voted. The source reports only that these options are under consideration, not that they have received final approval.

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