For the first time: Voting data by polling station will be provided to the public on election day

Chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Justice Noam Solberg, rejected today (Sunday) the Likud's request to reconsider his decision prohibiting party representatives at polling stations from transmitting real-time information to parties about the identity of voters.

"In the name of transparency and the purity of the elections, voting data by polling station will be provided to the public on election day. Information regarding the identity of the voters will remain confidential," Solberg ruled.

In the decision issued by the Central Elections Committee, it was clarified that it is not changing election laws close to the election date, and that in recent years, committee chairmen have raised doubts regarding the legality of the practice of transmitting information about the identity of voters. Furthermore, Solberg ruled that on election day, the committee will publish - at least four times a day - the voter turnout rates at every regular polling station across the country. The data will be available to all lists equally, and will allow them to work to encourage voters and increase turnout rates - without exposing information regarding the identity of those who voted.

The Central Elections Committee stated that these are aggregate data only, which do not allow identifying whether a specific person voted, and thus allow combining the need to enable lists to work to encourage voters with the obligation to maintain the privacy of Israeli citizens and the purity of the election process. In addition, Judge Solberg asked the Knesset factions and other parties involved in the process to propose applicable ways that will allow encouraging voters to exercise their right to vote, while maintaining the principles established in the decision and in particular the protection of the voters' privacy.

About two weeks ago, Solberg decided to prohibit the use of dedicated applications for the purpose of transmitting data about the identity of voters from polling stations to parties in real-time on election day. However, it was revealed on ynet at the time that the Likud wants to promote a legislative amendment that will allow the use of the "Elector" application, and will determine that this does not constitute a violation of privacy. Judge Solberg's decision increased the pressure in the Likud and other parties, after one of the significant work tools for them was disqualified for use. Relying on an opinion from the Attorney General, according to which election laws prevail over the violation of privacy, coalition representatives approached the current opposition with a request to draft legislation by consensus in order to validate the amendment and allow its approval without it arousing opposition and criticism.

In the same decision, it was determined that members of polling station committees and observers on behalf of candidate lists and parties, stationed at polling stations, are not allowed to report during election day to their parties, through dedicated applications, about the identity of the voters who arrived to vote. In his decision, Solberg ruled that transmitting information about the very fact of voting and its circumstances, including the time of voting and the type of polling station (e.g., polling stations in hospitals or polling stations for people with limited mobility), constitutes a violation of privacy, and is not permitted according to the provisions of the Privacy Protection Law. It was further determined that election laws do not authorize party representatives to transmit this information for party activity, and in the absence of explicit authorization, the transmission of the information is prohibited.

The decision mainly affects the large parties represented in the Knesset, which have a solid database and representation according to their relative size among the members of the polling station committee. Those parties also receive reimbursement from the state for this. The new parties are not represented in the polling station committee, so they do not have activists who will perform the cross-referencing with an application. The non-represented parties can fund observers at their own expense or send volunteers, but this is more difficult activity in terms of manpower. Among the parties that have used "Elector" in the past are Likud, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit, Shas, United Torah Judaism, and Yisrael Beiteinu. It allows field activists to identify acquaintances and relatives as supporters of their party and add them to the party's database. The database is fed by information from other sources - the voter registry, responses to SMS surveys - to create segmented lists of supporters and opponents. On election day, observers at polling stations used applications to document the voters who had already arrived to vote. The information allowed the party to perform a variety of actions, such as a personalized campaign to encourage voters to arrive at the polling stations, appeals intended to convince opponents to stay home, and even opened the door to committing fraud. In Agudat Yisrael, it is also customary to keep track in organized tables by Hasidic courts and by cities, and to check the voting status in them "minute by minute". Yesh Atid and the National Unity Party used similar voter encouragement applications that are not "Elector".