Top General Rules Out Military at Polling Places for 2026 Elections

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. military has no plans to deploy federal troops or National Guard to polling places for the November 2026 midterms and will not seize ballots or voting machines, stressing that election administration remains the responsibility of state and local officials; federal law restricts troops at polls to cases of armed conflict, and the debate over military involvement echoes past warnings from Trump and lawmakers who sought to bar such deployments.