Elections Committee Orders United Torah Judaism to Stop Reporting Voter Counts From Polling Stations
Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg issued a temporary order on election day barring United Torah Judaism and its polling station representatives from passing voter counts to the party.
The order, issued on Tuesday, October 27, covers both live updates and periodic reports, according to accounts published by i24NEWS and Makor Rishon. It came in response to a petition from the Movement for Quality Government, and Sohlberg gave the party until 2:15 p.m. to respond.
What the petition alleged
According to the petitioners, documents handed to UTJ representatives instructed them to record who arrived at their polling stations and pass the totals to a system run by Degel HaTorah, one of the two factions that make up United Torah Judaism, the alliance of Ashkenazi Haredi parties.
The petition also claimed that representatives were told to step out of the polling room and report the numbers by phone. In other words, the complaint was about the flow of information out of the polling station, not only about an app used inside it.
Why voter counts matter to parties
Live turnout data is valuable on election day. A party that knows which of its supporters have not yet voted can send activists, phone banks and vans to bring them to the polls before the stations close at 10 p.m. Haredi parties are known for highly organized get out the vote operations, and UTJ has long relied on turnout in its communities.
The rules on what party representatives may do inside polling stations are strict. Makor Rishon reported that an October 25 clarification by the committee stated that the prohibition covers every means of passing on the information, not only digital reporting.
What the order does not do
The order does not stop anyone from voting, and it has nothing to do with publishing the results after the count. It only restricts party representatives from transmitting the number of voters while voting is under way.
A temporary measure
The order is interim. It stays in force while the committee considers the petition and the party's response, and it does not decide whether the allegations are true. The 2:15 p.m. deadline was for UTJ's reply, not for a final ruling. Israel News Pulse could not independently find information about a later decision by Tuesday afternoon.
