Background
Three consolidated petitions concerned voting arrangements for residents of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in the October 27, 2026 election for the 26th Knesset. Israeli election law generally requires voters to cast ballots at the polling station linked to the voter list containing their name. Departures from that rule require primary legislation.
Temporary provisions enacted for the elections to the 24th and 25th Knessets had authorized special polling stations in qualifying elder-care facilities. The Central Elections Committee proposed making a similar arrangement for the coming election, but the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee did not advance it because the proposal lacked broad agreement. The petitioners argued that the resulting loss of on-site voting unlawfully impaired the constitutional right to vote, equality, and human dignity. They asked the Court either to read the prior temporary scheme into current law or to compel election authorities to use their administrative powers to place polling stations in the facilities.
The Court’s Holding
The Court rejected the requested constitutional remedy. Reading the former temporary provisions into the law would effectively require the Court to enact an entire polling-station regime that the current Knesset had chosen not to enact. That step exceeded the narrow limits of the “reading-in” remedy and would violate separation of powers and mutual respect among the branches.
The administrative claims had become unnecessary because the Central Elections Committee had already taken substantial action within its existing authority. It contacted 290 facilities about hosting ordinary polling stations open both to residents and to voters from outside the facilities. Professional staff recommended placing 159 polling stations at facilities that accepted the Committee’s conditions; 127 recommended sites had already passed accessibility review, with the remainder still to be assessed. The Committee’s plenary approved the overall framework on August 18, the statutory deadline for fixing polling locations. Although the Court regarded this as an adequate response rather than the optimal solution originally proposed, it held that the petitions in their current form had exhausted themselves and ended the proceedings without costs.
Key Takeaways
- Additional exceptions to Israel’s rule tying each voter to a designated polling station ordinarily must be created through primary legislation.
- The Court would not revive an expired temporary voting regime through constitutional interpretation when doing so would amount to legislating a complete scheme rejected by the Knesset.
- Election officials approved a framework for locating ordinary polling stations in elder-care facilities; professional staff recommended 159 sites, but the opinion did not state that every recommended location had received final individual approval.
Why It Matters
The judgment recognizes that nursing-home and assisted-living residents face serious, objective barriers to voting and criticizes the legislative retreat from the access provided in the two preceding elections. It nevertheless draws a firm institutional boundary: the judiciary cannot supply a comprehensive statutory exception that the legislature declined to enact.
The decision also shows how election administrators may mitigate access barriers within existing authority by locating ordinary, and where possible accessible, polling stations inside residential facilities. That administrative solution narrowed the practical dispute enough to end the litigation, while leaving the broader legislative gap unresolved.