The highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military says there are no plans to send troops to polling places during November’s midterm congressional elections, addressing concerns among Democrats that the Trump administration could use the military to interfere with the vote.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the statement in a letter to Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who recently asked Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to confirm they won’t send troops to the polls.
“The Joint Force has no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections,” Caine said in the letter to Slotkin, which was obtained Monday by The Associated Press. “Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material.”
Caine, who advises Hegseth and President Donald Trump on military matters, also wrote: “I have neither received nor anticipate receiving any unlawful order concerning the role of the Joint Force in the upcoming November 2026 midterm elections.”
Anxiety among Democrats that the Trump administration could try to meddle in the midterm elections has grown, particularly after the president deployed federal agents in Democratic-led states over the objections of local leaders.
Slotkin told the AP earlier in August that Trump has been laying the groundwork to claim the elections were stolen. She noted that Trump contemplated using the military to seize voting machines after his loss in 2020 and has deployed the National Guard to cities against the wishes of Democratic leaders. He also deployed active duty Marines to Los Angeles during his immigration crackdown in 2025.
I’m not worried about NG or army at the polls. Those guys have better training than most cops, from institutions with stricter rules around civilian engagement. And the people recruited are a mixed bag politically - many of them just want to go to college or get trained in a trade. They won’t want to be there, or to bust heads, or to fuck over the Constitution.
But that’s not who they’ll send. They’ll send ICE, who have over a year’s worth of experience terrorizing and abusing civilians, preferentially the most vulnerable ones least likely to fight back.
Their training is to kill. It’s in the conduct and prosecution of war.
They might be better trained, but that training is not applicable to any law enforcement activity.
And it’s absolutely not fucking applicable to exercise your rights as an American citizen to vote.
Not all of them. I worked cyber systems in the Air Force and Air National Guard. I served State Active Duty during the 2018 election cycle (we didn’t go to any polling places and were told to wear civilian clothes in case we had to so we didn’t disturb people). During our basic training we spent all of half a day at a range learning to shoot. Not exactly a ton of learning how to kill. Most people in the military aren’t taught how to kill. There are far more people doing logistics work than doing the deadly stuff.
They just taught you to wing ‘em?
More to the point. Everyone in the military is taught to kill. Not everyone is taught to be the trigger puller.
At no point in history has the trigger puller, the spear-stabby-stab-guy, or the rocky-smash-smash-man ever gone to war without others fighting along side them- or indeed, people providing logistical support.
All of that is what allows a military to function.
The purpose of the armed services is to kill the enemies of the state. Ostensibly for the protection of the state’s citizens.
That is why you being deployed to a polling place would “disturb” people.
Yes, but also no. Like I said my training wasn’t in killing it was in cyber systems. Securing a server does not kill people. Yes, it’s all part of the weapon system, but I have no clue how to wield those weapons along with most people in the military.
I think it witless be more disturbing because people would assume something is being rigged. They would assume the government is exerting some sort of influence over the election. Especially if we were there getting on a computer… We don’t even carry weapons.
I was in the Air Force, and our training included more about hand-to-hand non-lethal crowd control than actual killing.
See my response to the other guy that said similar-
Everyone in the armed services are trained to kill. Not everyone is a trigger puller.
Even if all you’re doing is serving as a cook- that role is to support and enable others; and is part of the overall job of killing enemies of the state.
Okay, then every taxpayer is a killer, too.
Paying taxes is compulsory. Military service is not.
When the military isn deployed, the purpose is to kill enemies of the state.
When the military is deployed to polling stations - those enemies are voting citizens.
Ask yourself why it’s military cyber sec and not, I dunno, FBI or, like, state-level people.