Israeli Supreme Court Judge Bars Real-Time Voter Reporting to Political Parties on Election Day

In a significant ruling impacting Israeli political parties, Supreme Court Judge Noam Solberg, who also chairs the Central Elections Committee, has prohibited polling station secretaries and party observers from reporting in real time which voters have already cast their ballots. This decision, announced on Tuesday, particularly affects ultra-Orthodox parties that have long relied on such data to mobilize voters who have yet to vote.

Judge Solberg ruled that sharing information about whether and when a person voted, including the polling station type, violates privacy laws and is not authorized under election law for partisan use. The ruling follows a petition filed by attorney Shahar Ben Meir and the Tel Aviv University Privacy Protection Clinic, which argued that real-time updates via apps enable parties to identify and encourage non-voters to vote, infringing on voter privacy.

During the legal process, parties such as Likud, Shas, and United Torah Judaism defended the practice, with Religious Zionism siding with Likud, while other parties did not take a substantive position. The judge emphasized that voter information is provided to party representatives solely to fulfill their official duties at polling stations and cannot be used for political campaigning.

However, parties may continue to use voter registry information as permitted by law, which does not include data on who has already voted on election day. Judge Solberg noted that his ruling reflects current legal standards and called for future examination of the balance between election laws and privacy protections in light of technological advances.

This ruling is expected to disrupt established voter mobilization strategies, especially within the Haredi community, where real-time voter tracking has been a key tool for decades.