Israel Hayom | Pollsters beware: Six months in prison for violation of rules

Although the elections are still months away, Israel Hayom had a short article today reminding Israeli pollsters of the restrictions that apply to them. The Israeli version of Nate Silver and the Fivethirtyeight blog may not be as accurate as in the US because the laws regarding polling are more strict (in fact, I don't know if there are any laws regarding polling in the US.)

From the article:

The Knesset's Central Election Commission on Wednesday warned public opinion pollsters ahead of the upcoming elections that they must follow legislated guidelines, and that those who fail to do so could face significant punishment of up to six months in jail or a fine of up to 29,000 shekels.

According to an appendix of the Election Law, "Whoever conducts a poll using known statistical methods, during the 90-day period prior to Knesset elections … will transfer the results as soon as possible, accompanied by a detailed account of the information, to the Central Election Commission."

In addition, pollsters are required to reveal the name of the organization that ordered the survey, the date or dates it was conducted, the population from which the sample pool was taken, and the number of people who refused to take part in the survey, among other stipulations.

The law also states that two days before elections to the Knesset, no public opinion polls are allowed to be published.  

I like the fact that no polls can be conducted 2 days before the election. I think this helps to ensure that people are not discouraged from voting based on poll data whether accurate or fictional.

For a paper on Israel Election Laws see Eyes They Have, But They See Not. And to read some background regarding the upcoming Israeli elections see here.