Election committee approves voting booths in 159 old-age homes after controversy

The Central Elections Committee on Tuesday approved the placement of polling stations in 159 old-age homes, after coalition lawmakers failed to renew a COVID-era provision that required special voting booths in retirement and assisted-living facilities.

The CEC made the statement in a Supreme Court filing on elderly citizens’ petitions on the matter.

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Israel first erected polling stations in non-nursing 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 the most recent Knesset election, in late 2022, for old-age homes housing at least 75 people.

In July, the coalition declined to renew the COVID-era measure. The decision was expected to negatively affect opposition parties in the October 27 election.

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

Last week, the High Court heard petitioners’ oral arguments that the coalition’s decision not to renew the placement of voting booths at old-age homes would violate the voting rights of elderly citizens, many of whom suffer disabilities.

Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, a former CEC head, expressed skepticism at the time, saying that “the previous arrangement worked great in past elections.”

The court asked the CEC to check whether it could nevertheless take steps to enable greater access to ballot boxes for senior citizens.

Appended to the new CEC filing was a summary of its Tuesday vote on the placement of polling booths. According to the summary, the committee voted to approve an Interior Ministry recommendation on polling station placements, along with revisions by CEC experts. Of 290 old-age homes surveyed that had hosted polling booths in the past two elections, 159 agreed to have voting booths operate on their grounds in the coming election, and were included in the CEC experts’ revisions.

The revisions were put up to a vote among the CEC’s 31 members, of whom 15 voted for them, three voted for the original Interior Ministry map and 13 did not vote at all, the CEC said. As a result, the revisions passed.

The CEC had said in a Monday filing to the Supreme Court that of the 159 old-age homes that agreed to host polling stations, 127 met the necessary accessibility requirements while the other 32 were still being examined. Those that are found to meet the prerequisites will also be allowed to serve voters with limited mobility.

In a statement quoted by Channel 12, petitioners welcomed the move, but said it was “unfortunate that about 100 other ballot boxes will not be placed because of political calculations.”

“Those who gave their best years to the country should not need to fight for the basic right to make their voices heard at the ballot box,” the petitioners said.

The controversy surrounding old-age home voting booths applied only to retirement or assisted-living facilities — not nursing homes, where mobile booths have long been stationed as in hospitals.

The Central Elections Committee is an independent state body responsible for managing parliamentary elections and protecting their integrity. It is chaired by a Supreme Court justice — currently Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg — and comprises representatives of the various factions in the Knesset.

The committee is in charge of tallying votes and has the power to disqualify parties ahead of elections.

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