US top court allows Trump to use controversial voter verification system

SaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkPoll workers stand outside despite rainy weather on the first day of early voting in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Ellen Schmidt/The Associated Press]By Al Jazeera Staff and The Associated PressPublished On 25 Sep 202625 Sep 2026The United States Supreme Court has allowed the administration of US President Donald Trump to use a controversial voter verification system just weeks away from the midterm election in November.The court’s emergency order on Friday allows the Department of Homeland Security to use the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, programme in its efforts to verify the eligibility of voters on state voter rolls.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Why are election officials in the US preparing for chaos before midterms?list 2 of 3US voter opposition to war on Iran grows to new highs: Polllist 3 of 3Early in-person voting begins in the 2026 US midterm elections in Virginiaend of listVoting rights groups have argued the use of the system, which was revamped under the Trump administration in 2025, risks falsely identifying individuals as non-voters, potentially leading to individuals being wrongfully purged from voter rolls.Those challenging the administration’s use of the database have charged that information on citizenship can be out of date. They pointed to a Travis County, Texas election official who found that up to 25 percent of the “non-citizens” identified by the system in the jurisdiction were in fact US citizens.US states oversee election administration under the country’s constitution and are not required to use the SAVE system, but several Republican-led state governments have voluntarily opted to use the database. Still, it was not immediately clear if Friday’s decision would have any meaningful impact on the midterm elections on November 3, in which voters will determine which parties control the US House of Representatives and the Senate.Existing law blocks most states from systematically purging voters from their rolls within 90 days of an election. The emergency order is not also the final say on the matter, only granting the administration the ability to use the system until the court makes a final ruling.The three liberal justices on the panel, which has a 6-3 conservative supermajority, issued a dissenting opinion, saying the majority disregarded “the harms that the modified SAVE system has caused, and will likely continue to cause, to lawful voters”.The Citizens for Ethics watchdog group charged that the decision “puts millions of Americans at risk of being unlawfully targeted by the admin’s unreliable voter purge system weeks before the midterms”. Trump has focused heavily on election administration in the run-up to the midterm vote, which could serve as a major check on his authority in the final two years of his term.He has for years claimed, without evidence, that US elections are marred by widespread fraud and has repeatedly falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, was “stolen”.Evidence has suggested that fraud of any kind, including instances of non-citizens voting in the US, has been glancingly rare in the country.In September, the Supreme Court rejected a bid from Trump to restrict mail ballot procedures before the midterm election.