Israeli Central Elections Committee Bars Real-Time Voter Identity Sharing with Parties

Noam Solberg, chairman of Israel's Central Elections Committee, rejected a request to reconsider his ruling that prohibits polling station representatives from transmitting real-time information about voter identities to political parties. This decision, announced on Sunday, impacts the voter mobilization efforts of ultra-Orthodox parties, which rely on such data to identify supporters who have yet to vote and encourage their turnout.

Solberg clarified that his ruling does not constitute a last-minute change to election laws but rather an enforcement of existing privacy protections under the Privacy Protection Law. He noted that previous committee heads had also questioned the legality of sharing voter identity data during elections and that parties should have anticipated the possibility of such a ban. Solberg suggested that legislation could be pursued to regulate this issue.

To balance privacy concerns with parties' interest in encouraging voter participation, Solberg instructed that the Central Elections Committee will publish aggregate voter turnout rates at each polling station at least four times on election day. This data will be equally accessible to all parties, allowing them to identify polling stations with low turnout without revealing individual voter identities.

This ruling upholds Solberg's earlier decision from about ten days prior, which forbade committee members and party observers from reporting any information about who has voted, including voting times and polling station types. Solberg emphasized that sharing such information infringes on voter privacy and that election laws do not authorize parties to receive it for campaign purposes.