Sohlberg Grants Likud Limited Access to Election Records From About 190 Polling Stations

Justice Noam Sohlberg, chairman of the Central Elections Committee, partly accepted Likud’s request on Wednesday to inspect election materials from about 190 polling stations in Arab communities. Likud sought the records as it considers an appeal against the election results. In its revised application, Likud alleged that reports identifying voters at numerous polling stations in the Arab sector had been used to encourage people to come and vote. The party requested access to materials to examine whether evidence could support an election appeal. Sohlberg limited access to records that could help establish the claims raised in the application; some of the requested documents were already available to Likud or held by its representatives. The Supreme Court justice refused to release photographs taken during voting by election-integrity inspectors. Under the applicable case law, those photographs may be provided only to police, prosecutors and the committee’s legal advisers. He authorized access to scanned IVR voting-monitoring forms and to the polling-station committees’ notes and decisions for the stations concerned. Sohlberg also permitted examination of voter check-off lists, which identify eligible voters and mark those who cast ballots, together with voting times. Central Elections Committee employees will conduct that examination through a controlled, supervised process. Likud may send observers to accompany it.