High Court hears arguments as petitioners seek to keep ballot boxes at retirement homes

Knesset declined to renew COVID-era requirement that assisted-living facilities provide places to vote, in move groups say is discriminatory, could affect 35,000-37,000 voters

The High Court of Justice heard arguments on Tuesday on a petition against the Knesset’s repeal of a provision that required voting booths in retirement homes and assisted-living facilities, with the petitioners arguing that removing the in-house polling places would violate the residents’ rights.

The petitioners were 56 elderly citizens who live in old-age homes, who filed their suit against the Knesset, the Central Elections Commission, and the attorney general as a representative of the government. Several organizations serving the elderly also petitioned.

The defendants have argued that the issue is outside the court’s authority.

“Fifty percent of seniors have disabilities, and this decision is simply opposed to an entire sector of society,” Yuval Venger, head of the Israel Center for Accessibility, said before the hearing, according to the Haaretz newspaper.

High Court President Isaac Amit, who previously served as chairman of the Central Elections Committee, expressed skepticism about the Knesset’s decision, saying: “The previous arrangement worked great in past elections,” and citing his experience in that role.

Israel first erected polling stations in non-nursing home old-age facilities in the 2021 Knesset election because of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, polling booths were set up in any old-age home housing at least 30 people. The measure was repeated in Israel’s most recent Knesset election, in late 2022, for old-age homes housing at least 75 people.

The repeal applies to people living in retirement or assisted-living facilities — not in nursing homes, where mobile booths have long been stationed like those in hospitals.

Ending the practice would affect between 35,000 and 37,000 people — about one Knesset seat’s worth of votes — according to Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee member Oded Forer, whose hawkish-secularist Yisrael Beytenu party is seen as likely to suffer from the removal of the polling booths.

The push to do away with the polling booths that were stationed in old-age homes came even as the coalition sought to expand voting for an estimated 200 people who are performing national service abroad and seen as more likely to support the coalition. The opposition has resisted that measure.

According to Haaretz, the Central Elections Commission recommended putting voting booths in nursing homes again, but the Knesset rejected the proposal.

Justice Ofer Grosskopf questioned whether the judiciary had any legitimate role to play in the Knesset’s “informed decision,” saying, according to that report: “The question of whether to renew the arrangement is within the Knesset’s authority.”

The Central Elections Committee, represented by the state attorney, told the court that it was working with old-age homes to again arrange for polling places, even though this is no longer mandated by the law.

But the petitioners, according to Haaretz, said that without a legal requirement, some homes are refusing to host polling places, out of a concern about the number of non-resident voters who would show up on Election Day.

Arrangements have been made so far with about half of the relevant facilities, Hebrew media reported, citing the court hearing.

Yonatan Berman of the State Attorney’s Office acknowledged the impracticality of assuaging the remaining institutions’ concerns one by one between now and the elections, telling the court: “Ad hoc solutions for each nursing home, that’s a hard thing to do.”

The court is yet to issue its decision on the case.

Ariela Karmel contributed to this report.