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The Supreme Court of Israel will hear a petition on Wednesday from the Likud party challenging a ban on real-time reporting of voters by party representatives. The case could significantly impact Election Day turnout operations for parties in less than two months before the October 27 election. The dispute centers around whether party representatives can send information to campaign headquarters about voters who have arrived at polling stations and cast their ballots.

Central Elections Committee chairman and Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg banned the practice on August 4 and rejected Likud's request for reconsideration on August 16. Sohlberg asserts that personal information about a person's vote and the circumstances surrounding it is off-limits for transfer from polling stations to party databases without legal authorization.

He argues that polling-station committee members and observers perform an official electoral role in administering and supervising the vote, not for providing campaign data. The prohibition applies to all parties, regardless of how the information is transmitted. As an alternative, the committee will publish turnout rates for each polling station at least four times throughout the day, though identities of voters will remain anonymous.

Likud argues that Sohlberg's ruling imposes an unprecedented restriction after the election campaign has already begun, while the party relied on real-time reporting for operational planning. The party also disputes Sohlberg's authority to determine the privacy law compliance of party representatives. Likud seeks to either cancel the prohibition or delay its implementation until a future election.