High Court to hear Likud challenge to real-time voter reporting ban

Israel’s High Court of Justice is set to consider whether political parties may receive real-time information about which voters have cast ballots, a practice Likud says it has relied on for years.

The court will hear Likud’s petition on Wednesday, less than two months before the Oct. 27 election. Justices Yael Willner, Alex Stein and Khaled Kabub will hear the case, which will be livestreamed.

The dispute does not concern the secrecy of a voter’s choice. It concerns whether party-appointed polling-station committee members and observers may send campaign headquarters information identifying a voter who arrived and cast a ballot, including details about when or at which type of polling station the vote took place.

Central Elections Committee Chairman and Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg prohibited the practice on Aug. 4 and rejected Likud’s request for reconsideration on Aug. 16. Sohlberg ruled that participation in an election and the circumstances surrounding it constitute personal information. In his view, polling-station representatives receive such information to administer and supervise voting, not to supply campaigns with data for political operations.

Parties have used applications over several election cycles to mark supporters who had voted. Campaign headquarters could then focus calls, messages and visits on likely supporters who had not. Likud argues that the prohibition introduced a new restriction after campaigning had begun, disrupting plans based on a practice that had operated openly. As an alternative, the Central Elections Committee will publish turnout rates for each ordinary polling station at least four times on Election Day, without identifying individual voters.

“

a person's vote is personal