Following investigations of voter fraud in US elections for the World Zionist Congress, the Shas USA slate has been disqualified from participating, and several other parties will face financial penalties and vote deductions, according to documents obtained by The Times of Israel.

However, multiple levels of appeals and challenges are expected through the Zionist Supreme Court, which adjudicates disputes within the World Zionist Organization. Final outcomes may not be clear until later in the summer, sources noted.

A record 230,257 total votes were cast for American delegates in the World Zionist Congress held from March 10 to May 4, not including nearly 19,000 that were invalidated due to suspicions of fraud. In a historic first, Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox movements received more than 40% of the vote.

The results of the vote will help determine how some $5 billion in funding will be spent on Jewish and Israeli causes over the next five years.

Of the 22 slates that competed, Shas USA, which is linked to Israel’s Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party Shas, was relatively insignificant, winning just over 1% of the total vote after suspicious ballots were thrown out.

Internal documents from the Area Election Committee (AEC), which oversaw the election, showed that more than 2,700 mail-in votes for Shas were sent in two boxes delivered from Jewish institutions in New York. All were paid by suspicious credit or prepaid cards (there was a $5 fee to vote), most were linked to problematic mailing addresses and phone numbers, and many had irregular signatures. The slate’s responses to inquiries about the votes were not found by the AEC to be credible, the document noted.

In addition to being disqualified from the 2025 Congress, Shas USA’s chairman will also be barred from participating in the 2030 Congress. The slate........

© The Times of Israel