High Court schedules Wednesday hearing for petitions seeking ban on election-day use of voter data

The High Court of Justice schedules a hearing for petitions requesting a ban on the use of voting data on election day by party-appointed polling station workers for Wednesday morning. The Central Election Committee, which reflects the balance of parties in the Knesset, voted to uphold the practice of using voter data on Sunday, but activist Shahar Ben Meir and head of the Miluimnikim party Yoaz Hendel petitioned the High Court to overturn the decision. In setting the hearing for Wednesday, the court also issues a conditional order against the Central Elections Committee on the matter, something which usually indicates that the court believes a petition to have merit, but which, in this current case, the court says is merely to expedite the case given the proximity of the upcoming elections. For several election cycles, party-appointed polling station workers have sent data on who has voted to party campaign headquarters on election day, which is used to track who has not yet voted and enables parties to encourage their likely voters who have not yet cast ballots to do so. Last month, Central Elections Committee Chairman and Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg banned the practice, saying it violated Israel's privacy laws. But the Likud party petitioned the High Court against the decision, arguing that Sohlberg did not have the authority to take such decision. Without issuing a definitive ruling, the court said that the issue of whether Sohlberg had such authority was 'difficult' and ordered the full Central Elections Committee to decide on the issue. The committee ultimately voted to reverse Sohlberg's decision and reinstate the use of the voting data. The justices stated during the hearing, however, that they believed the practice violates Israel's privacy laws, and asserted that there was no law allowing the use of the data. Such a stance indicates the court may view the substance of the petitions favorably, although it may still decline to ban the practice so close to an election, when several parties, including the Likud, will argue that their election-day get-out-the-vote campaign relies largely on the use of voter data.