In a ruling with potentially far-reaching political consequences, the chairman of Israel’s Central Elections Committee, Justice Noam Sohlberg, has prohibited party representatives and election observers from reporting, in real time, which voters have already cast their ballots on Election Day.

The decision is expected to deal a significant blow to the get-out-the-vote operation relied upon most heavily by Israel’s chareidi parties, which have long used real-time updates from polling stations to identify supporters who have not yet voted and encourage them to head to the polls before voting closes.

Under the ruling, members of polling station committees and official party observers may no longer transmit information to their parties regarding the identity of voters who have already voted using smartphone applications or other reporting systems.

Justice Sohlberg ruled that information regarding whether a person has voted — including the time they voted or the type of polling station, such as a hospital or an accessible polling location — is private information protected under Israel’s Privacy Protection Law.

He further determined that election laws do not authorize party representatives to transfer such information for partisan political purposes. Without explicit legal authorization, the practice is prohibited.

The ruling came in response to a petition filed by attorney Shachar Ben Meir, joined by Tel Aviv University’s Privacy Protection Clinic. The petition argued that the widespread practice of party representatives updating mobile applications throughout Election Day to indicate which voters had already cast ballots enabled parties to instantly identify supporters who had not yet voted and target them with intensive voter turnout efforts, violating privacy rights and undermining ballot secrecy.

During the proceedings, the Likud, Shas, and United Torah Judaism argued that the longstanding practice does not violate Israeli law, while the Religious Zionism Party supported Likud’s position. Most other parties declined to take a substantive position on the issue.

In his decision, Justice Sohlberg emphasized that party representatives gain access to voter information solely because of their official role inside polling stations. Using that information for campaign purposes, he wrote, goes beyond the purpose for which it was obtained and therefore violates Israel’s privacy laws.

At the same time, Sohlberg stressed that his ruling reflects the current legal framework and does not express a view on what the law should be in the future. He called for lawmakers to reexamine the relationship between election law and privacy protections in light of modern technological developments.

Political parties will still be permitted to use voter information legally obtained from the official voter registry to contact supporters. However, that information does not reveal whether an individual has actually voted.

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