Central Elections Committee Approves Polling Stations in Nursing Homes Without Knesset Law

The Central Elections Committee approved the placement of 159 polling stations in nursing homes and assisted living facilities for the 26th Knesset elections on August 18, 2026. This decision followed petitions to the Supreme Court demanding a solution to enable elderly citizens to vote near their residences. The committee informed the court that with this approval, the petitions were rendered moot.

The petitions were filed by dozens of senior citizens, the Union of Elderly Associations, and the Marva Association after the coalition failed to pass legislation allowing polling stations in nursing homes, a provision that had been in place during the previous two election cycles, partly due to COVID-19 constraints. Without this arrangement, many elderly residents, including those in wheelchairs or dependent on staff assistance, faced practical barriers to voting as their designated polling stations were located outside their living facilities.

Petitioners argued that the cancellation of the arrangement ignored the professional recommendations of the Elections Committee and lacked any professional justification. Following the Supreme Court's directive to urgently find a solution, the committee authorized the polling stations. Legal representatives for the petitioners, including attorneys Yuval Yoaz, Giora Ardinast, and others, hailed the decision as an important achievement but lamented that approximately 100 additional polling stations were not approved due to political considerations.

Attorney Yuval Yoaz emphasized that a society is measured by its treatment of the elderly and criticized the partial solution as insufficient, noting that tens of thousands of elderly citizens would still be unable to exercise their democratic right to vote. The committee's approval came despite the absence of a dedicated law from the Knesset enabling this arrangement, which the coalition did not advance this election cycle.