High Court bars parties from reporting who voted at polling stations ahead of election

The High Court of Justice in Israel has barred party representatives at polling stations from disclosing to their parties which identifiable voters have cast ballots, ending a longstanding election-day practice six weeks before the October 27 election. The unanimous ruling overturns a prior decision by the Central Elections Committee, which would have allowed such reporting under restrictions.

Parties can still contact voters and urge them to vote, but they cannot use information obtained by their representatives while working at polling stations to identify who has voted, as this information has been valuable for campaigns to compare turnout with their own databases and contact likely supporters. The court found that passing this information to a party for campaign purposes violates a provision of the Privacy Protection Law and is not authorized under election law.

Brief written by urgent.news from Jerusalem Post's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.