Supreme Court on the polling station crisis in nursing homes: "We cannot legislate in place of the Knesset"
Supreme Court justices rejected the petitions regarding the placement of polling stations in nursing homes and assisted living facilities after the Central Elections Committee formulated an alternative outline on its own initiative. However, President Amit sharply criticized the Knesset's refusal to legislate a permanent arrangement for the elderly population who have difficulty moving.
The petitions regarding the placement of polling stations in nursing homes and assisted living facilities have come to an end: The Supreme Court ruled that further discussion of the three petitions was unnecessary following the outline formulated by the Central Elections Committee.
In the verdict, it was written that the committee began acting on the matter on its own initiative even before the petitions were filed, and that its actions were what ultimately led to the petitions becoming moot.
The petitions were heard before Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and judges Ofer Grosskopf and Gila Canfi-Steinitz, and dealt with the question of whether nursing home residents would be able to vote in the institutions where they reside, similar to the format used in the two previous election cycles.
In the background was the Constitution Committee's decision not to adopt the Central Elections Committee's proposal to add to the Election Law an arrangement that would allow for the placement of polling stations in nursing homes also in the elections for the 26th Knesset.
"Accessibility is going backwards"
Alongside the conclusion of the proceeding, the Supreme Court criticized the Knesset's decision. President Amit wrote that this is an "exceptional case where the trend of making elections accessible is 'going backwards'", following the Knesset's refusal to also exempt the nursing home and assisted living population from the "attachment to the polling station" principle, as was done in the elections for the two previous Knessets.
It was further determined that those staying in nursing homes face a "real objective difficulty" that limits their ability to vote at the polling station where they are registered, among other things due to their age and physical condition.
However, the court clarified that it cannot itself apply the arrangement that existed in the previous elections. President Amit wrote that the meaning of the remedy requested by the petitioners is that the court would "legislate for itself a complete arrangement for placing polling stations in nursing homes, even though the Knesset decided not to legislate such an arrangement", and that this "stands in contradiction to the principle of separation of powers and mutual respect between the branches of government".
At the same time, the Elections Committee turned on its own initiative to 290 nursing homes and assisted living institutions to examine the placement of regular polling stations on their premises. The professional staff recommended placing 159 polling stations in institutions that agreed to the conditions set by the committee, and at the time of the update to the court, 127 of the locations had already been checked and found to meet the accessibility requirements.
The plenum of the Elections Committee approved the outline on August 18. The Supreme Court ruled that it provides an "appropriate solution in the circumstances of the matter", even though it is not the optimal solution that was proposed initially and was not adopted in the Constitution Committee.
