US top court allows Trump to use controversial voter verification system
News Source
β’Fri, 25 Sep 2026 17:45:24 +0000
π° What Happened
The US Supreme Court has let President Donald Trump's administration use a contested voter-check system. The emergency order came on Friday. It was issued just weeks before the midterm elections in November.
The order lets the Department of Homeland Security use the SAVE programme. SAVE was built to check whether people are allowed to receive government benefits. Now it will also be used to check whether voters on state rolls are eligible.
π The Backstory
Voting rights groups say the system gets things wrong. They warn it can wrongly name real citizens as non-citizens and push them off voter lists. They also say the citizenship records it uses can be out of date.
In Travis County, Texas, an election official found that up to 25 percent of the 'non-citizens' the system flagged were in fact US citizens. States run their own elections under the US Constitution. They do not have to use SAVE, but some Republican-led states have chosen to.
π― Why It Matters
If the system makes mistakes, legal voters could be blocked from voting in a major election. That could change who ends up winning.
The US Supreme Court has let President Donald Trump's administration use a contested voter-check system. The emergency order came on Friday. It was issued just weeks before the midterm elections in November.
The order lets the Department of Homeland Security use the SAVE programme. SAVE was built to check whether people are allowed to receive government benefits. Now it will also be used to check whether voters on state rolls are eligible.
Voting rights groups say the system gets things wrong. They warn it can wrongly name real citizens as non-citizens and push them off voter lists. They also say the citizenship records it uses can be out of date.
In Travis County, Texas, an election official found that up to 25 percent of the 'non-citizens' the system flagged were in fact US citizens. States run their own elections under the US Constitution. They do not have to use SAVE, but some Republican-led states have chosen to.
If the system makes mistakes, legal voters could be blocked from voting in a major election. That could change who ends up winning.