सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने ट्रम्प का मेल वोटिंग सुधार रोका, चुनावों पर फेडरल नियंत्रण की लड़ाई जारी

US Supreme Court blocks Trump's mail voting overhaul before midterms

The US Supreme Court blocked Donald Trump's plan to rapidly overhaul mail voting before the midterms. Yet his administration is still pressing states for voter data and broader federal control over elections.

The US Supreme Court this week blocked one of President Donald Trump's biggest attempts to reshape the November midterm elections, stopping a plan that would have required a major overhaul of mail voting in what election officials said was an impossibly short timeframe.

But that case is only one part of a wider push by Trump to assert federal control over the election process. Other efforts are still under way even as mail ballots have already been sent in at least three states and early voting begins in others this week.

In recent days, the Department of Justice ordered officials in 29 states and the District of Columbia to preserve records from the 2024 election as part of an effort to force states to hand over detailed voter data, despite repeated court setbacks. At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security has launched its own investigation to look for noncitizens on state voter rolls, an exercise that a federal whistleblower has described as rushed, error-prone and possibly in breach of state laws.

Trump has continued to claim, falsely, that mail ballots are corrupt, that noncitizens are widely present on voter lists and that Democratic election fraud is widespread. At the recent Republican convention, he urged supporters in a verbal pledge to "cheat like hell, like they do". After Monday's Supreme Court ruling, Trump criticised the justices, saying they did not have the "courage necessary to save our America".

Under the US Constitution, elections are run by states, not the federal government. Election officials have said they are prepared to hold a safe and secure election even if Trump continues to challenge the process. Democratic groups have also said they are preparing contingency plans in case Trump sends armed federal officers to polling stations or Republicans make other improper attempts to interfere in the vote that will decide which party controls Congress next year.

One of the administration's main efforts has involved a federal voter eligibility database known as Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE. The programme was created under immigration law to help federal, state and local agencies stop government benefits from going to noncitizens. Last year, Trump directed changes to expand its use for large-scale searches by election officials.

The administration then sent letters and filed lawsuits to push states to run voter data through the tool. Some states agreed, while many others refused, citing concerns over the security of residents' personal information. Since last year, at least 67 million registrations have been checked through the programme, but critics say it could wrongly remove valid voters from the rolls, and some registrants have already been incorrectly flagged.

In June, a federal judge blocked the new version of SAVE, calling it an illegal violation of Americans' privacy. The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to block that ruling, but the court has not yet acted. Meanwhile, the federal government continues to press states to hand over registration records containing addresses, dates of birth, driving licence numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned in July that states could lose funding or face investigations if they did not comply with Trump's election security demands. Last week, the DOJ followed up with letters telling states they were "under investigation" and involved in ongoing litigation because they had not surrendered the requested data. Investigations have found that while noncitizens have at times appeared on voter rolls and cast ballots, such cases are extremely rare.

According to a whistleblower report released on Monday, DHS in August also told a group of US Citizenship and Immigration Services staff to shift to a full-time manual review of state voter rolls. The whistleblower said employees were being told to misrepresent themselves while using voter lookup tools, in a way that probably breaks state laws, as they compared DHS data with state records to identify noncitizens who may be registered illegally.

The effort, known as the "Unlawful Voter Initiative", also asks staff to create federal law enforcement records about voters using unreliable data, the whistleblower said, raising the risk that US citizens could be wrongly implicated and face further scrutiny. DHS did not deny the work, but said the investigation was being carried out "diligently and professionally". A department spokesperson said in an emailed statement: "The department accessed publicly available data from states' voter rolls and cross referenced them with known aliens in our systems. It's not rocket science; it's an easy step to secure our elections."

Trump has also faced court challenges in other attempts to reshape election administration, including through two executive orders now tied up in lawsuits alleging that the proposed changes are unconstitutional. He has also failed so far to get the Republican-controlled Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a strict proof-of-citizenship bill that does not have enough support in the Senate.

Still, the administration has used law enforcement powers in ways that have produced results. Last year, the FBI seized hundreds of boxes of ballots and other documents linked to the 2020 election in Georgia's most populous county without explanation. The FBI has also demanded 2024 ballots from Michigan's Wayne County and obtained records related to the 2020 election from Arizona's Maricopa County.

Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Tuesday that the administration would continue its efforts despite the Supreme Court's ruling. "I expect you're going to see that work continue," he told reporters at a Rose Garden briefing.

Tammy Patrick of The Election Center, whose organisation represents nearly 2,500 election officials, said the Supreme Court's mail voting decision had removed the main immediate threat to balloting across the country. She and other election administrators said established systems would hold for the 2026 midterms. "Voters should realize the midterms are going to be secure," Patrick said. "They're going to be legitimate."

With PTI Inputs

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