Election Committee Overturns Judge's Ban on Real-Time Voter Reporting

The Central Elections Committee has reversed a decision by Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, allowing political parties to report on voters at polling stations on election day. The committee's ruling permits the use of applications like 'Elector' for this purpose, a practice that has been standard for years.

The issue first came before the Supreme Court following a petition by the Likud party. The court then referred the decision back to the Elections Committee, where the coalition holds a majority. The committee's reversal of Sohlberg's decision means the matter is expected to return to the Supreme Court this week for a final determination on whether parties can indeed gather real-time information from polling stations.

During discussions, MK Simcha Rothman argued that searching one's phone is less invasive of privacy than the long-standing practice of reporting voter activity on election day. Likud's legal representative, attorney Ilan Bombach, described Sohlberg's initial decision, which was overturned, as a 'terror attack' that would cause 'enormous damage' to the party's electoral prospects.

The Supreme Court justices, Yael Vilaner, Alex Stein, and Khaled Kabub, had previously heard Likud's appeal against the ban on monitoring polling stations and suggested the Elections Committee reconsider the matter, which it did on Sunday.