Israeli Supreme Court Rules Parties Cannot Report Voter Identities During Election Day

On Tuesday, Noam Solberg, chair of Israel's Central Elections Committee and a Supreme Court justice, ruled that party representatives and observers at polling stations are prohibited from reporting the identities of voters who have cast their ballots during election day. Solberg clarified that sharing information about whether and when a person voted, including details such as the type of polling station, violates privacy laws under the Privacy Protection Act. He emphasized that election laws do not authorize party representatives to disseminate such information for political purposes.

The ruling followed a petition filed by attorney Shahar Ben Meir, joined by Tel Aviv University's Privacy Protection Clinic, which argued that the existing practice of parties updating voter turnout in real time via apps enables them to identify non-voters and pressure them to vote. This mechanism was said to severely infringe on voter privacy and ballot secrecy. During the hearing, the Likud, Shas, and United Torah Judaism parties contended that the practice did not violate the law, with Religious Zionism siding with Likud. Other Knesset factions declined to comment.

Justice Solberg rejected the parties' arguments, stating that information about voting is private and accessed by party representatives solely to ensure election integrity. Using this data to locate and encourage voters who have not yet voted contradicts the purpose of the information and is therefore illegal under privacy law. He noted that the ruling reflects current legal standards and urged legislators to comprehensively review the relationship between election laws and privacy protections, especially given recent technological advances.

However, parties may still lawfully use voter registry data provided in advance to contact citizens, but without real-time updates on whether individuals have voted.