Legal Ruling Enables Bypassing Previous Supreme Court Decisions Against Right-Wing Election Tactics

The chairman of Israel's Central Elections Committee, Judge Noam Solberg, recently ruled that extracting information from polling stations to encourage voter turnout is illegal. This decision targets practices used by several parties, including Likud, ultra-Orthodox factions, and Yisrael Beiteinu. However, similar petitions filed by the same attorney, Shahar Ben Meir, were rejected in three prior election cycles by both the Elections Committee and the Supreme Court.

In earlier cases, petitions challenging the use of voter data were dismissed on procedural grounds. For example, in the 2020 elections, the committee under Judge Neil Hendel ruled it lacked authority over the matter, and the Supreme Court, led by Judge Alex Stein, determined the issue belonged to administrative courts, not the Supreme Court. Ben Meir explained that the current petition succeeded because it was filed directly to Judge Solberg in his administrative capacity overseeing polling committees, rather than under the Election Campaign and Privacy Protection Law.

The Elections Committee clarified that this is the first petition challenging the authority of polling station committee members to release voter information. Previous petitions focused solely on privacy law and were rejected because they did not directly challenge committee members’ authority. Once election law was included, Judge Solberg was compelled to consider the case. Critics from the right-wing have accused Solberg of overstepping his role, likening the committee to a Supreme Court chamber. The ruling marks a significant shift in election oversight and may impact how parties mobilize voters in the upcoming elections.