High Court blocks Likud-backed digital voter tracking at polling stations ahead of elections

On Thursday, the High Court of Justice blocked a plan by Likud-backed representatives to digitally count and report real-time voter totals at polling stations prior to elections. The 2-1 decision followed a September ruling that prohibited these representatives from reporting which individual voters had cast ballots, citing privacy concerns.

The latest dispute centered on whether these representatives could instead transmit numerical totals without identifying voters. Justices Khaled Kabub and Ruth Ronnen formed the majority, with Justice David Mintz dissenting. The ruling came after a petition by the Israel Democracy Guard organization, challenging a decision by Dean Livne, acting director-general of the Central Elections Committee.

In October, Livne had permitted digital tools for counting voters and sending numerical information to parties, provided voter identities were not disclosed. The court declared that party representatives at polling stations perform public duties and lack legal authority to pass identifiable voter data to their parties for campaign purposes.

The court also noted that removing voters' names did not resolve the issue of whether officials inside polling stations could gather information for party headquarters. The state and Likud argued that numerical reporting differed from identifying individual voters and could aid party efforts to encourage voter participation.