High Court rules polling station workers cannot count and transmit voting numbers to political parties

The High Court of Justice rules that polling station officials and party-appointed observers cannot count, via digital means, the number of voters who have voted on election day and transmit that information in real time to the political parties they represent.

The High Court decision comes after allegations that the Likud party had developed a smartphone application that would enable Likud-appointed polling station officials to collect specific information about voters’ identities and transmit it to campaign staff on election day, which would violate both a recent High Court ruling and Israeli election law.

The ruling is made two to one, and overturns a decision by acting Central Elections Committee director Dean Livne, who permitted the practice. The reasoning behind the ruling was not provided because of the tight time frame in which the petition against such methods was filed. The explanations will be issued at a later date.

The Israel Democracy Guard organization, which petitioned the court over the issue, welcomes the decision, saying that polling station officials “perform a public, politically neutral role on election day—and do not serve as an operational arm of political party headquarters.”

The organization says that the ruling will prevent polling stations from being transformed into sources of real-time information for political parties.

“It is now incumbent upon the Central Elections Committee to ensure that the guidelines provided to all personnel at polling stations are clear, uniform, and enforceable,” the group adds.