The Central Elections Committee voted Sunday to overturn a decision by its chairman, High Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, and restore political parties’ ability to use apps such as Elector to receive real-time information on voter turnout on Election Day.

Under the decision, parties will be permitted to use dedicated applications to receive reports directly from polling stations identifying which registered voters have already cast their ballots.

The vote came after the High Court of Justice sent the issue back to the Central Elections Committee for reconsideration following a petition filed by Likud.

Likud MK Amit Halevi, a member of the Central Elections Committee, welcomed the decision and sharply criticized Sohlberg’s earlier ruling.

“If there is such a thing as ‘substantive democracy,’ it is encouraging citizens to vote and have an influence,” Halevi said. “Justice Sohlberg’s attempt to prevent the parties from doing so after the election campaign was already underway was unreasonable and undermined public confidence in the committee.”

“It is good that we overturned the decision today by a large majority, and that is how it must remain.”

The decision was made after a stormy debate took place, with MKs and political representatives slamming legal officials supporting the ban, arguing that the ability to monitor voter turnout in real time does not compromise the secrecy of the ballot. Rather, they said, it allows parties to help ensure that voters exercise their right to vote and helps safeguard the integrity of the election.

During the hearing, Attorney Moshe Morgenstern, Degel HaTorah’s representative on the committee, said: “As deputy chairman of the Dan District Elections Committee, I saw dozens of cases in which turnout at a particular polling station was extremely low because a member of the polling committee deliberately used all kinds of tricks and tactics to delay the voting process.

“Without our ability, and that of the parties, to monitor in real time who had voted and who had not, the failure would have continued, and the integrity of the election would have been compromised. It was precisely the transfer of this information that ensured the integrity of the election was protected. There has never been a single complaint from anyone claiming that their privacy was violated!”

MK Simcha Rothman said during the hearing: “If I, as a committee chairman, convened the Constitution Committee over something I didn’t like and passed legislation doing the opposite, what would they say to me? ‘How can you change the rules in the middle of the game?’

“So how can you change something here that has been customary since the establishment of the state? You are changing the rules in the middle of the game, without any authority whatsoever.”

Deputy Committee Chairman MK Erez Malul said: “The decision to prevent observers from reporting real-time voting data is a serious mistake that changes the rules in the middle of the game. Such a dramatic change requires proper legislation or a public committee headed by a retired High Court justice — not an administrative ambush.

“By the reasonable-person standard, there is no invasion of privacy. A distinction must be made between the secrecy of the ballot and transparency regarding voter turnout. This restriction must be overturned, and the parties and the public must be given back the tools needed for a free, fair and transparent Election Day.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)