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 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.