Nation's Top General Says Military Has No Plans to Deploy Troops to November Polls

Gen. Dan Caine wrote in a letter to a concerned Democrat that he has not received any notice or call to militarize the midterms and ballot locations.

The nation's top military general said the U.S. military has no current plans to send troops to polling places during November's midterm elections.

"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," Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), in a letter initially obtained 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 added.

The letter answered a request Slotkin had sent to Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, asking them to confirm the Pentagon would not send federal troops to the polls or seize election materials of any kind.

Concerns Go Back to 2020 Election

Slotkin's letter grew out of a broader unease among Democrats about the administration's willingness to domestically use the military. She told the AP that President Donald Trump has been laying the groundwork to claim the elections were stolen by the opposition party.

Caine, the nation's highest-ranking military officer, said that no such plan or agenda exists.

"I have neither received nor anticipate receiving any unlawful order concerning the role of the Joint Force in the upcoming November 2026 midterm elections," he wrote.

Slotkin pointed to Trump having contemplated using the military to seize voting machines after his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden, and his more recent deployment of the National Guard to Democratic-led cities over the objections of local leaders.

Administration officials have defended those deployments as lawful responses to unrest and crime that local leaders failed to control.

Separately, the Justice Department said in a release that it will deploy poll monitors during the midterms. This is a civilian function it has carried out in past elections.

What Current Rules, Laws Dictate

The Posse Comitatus Act restricts the use of federal troops for domestic law enforcement. Legal analysts note it does not apply to National Guard members operating under state command.

A separate federal law bars troops at polling places except to repel armed enemies of the country.

The main exception to these limits is the Insurrection Act, which a president can invoke to use the military domestically in certain circumstances.

Caine has ruled out the federal military carrying out such actions on its own.

The scenarios that legal scholars have flagged as broader lawful questions, such as Guard troops' in-state status or a presidential invocation of the Insurrection Act, fall outside what the letter directly addresses.

Military.com reached out to the Joint Staff to ask whether Caine's position extends to those situations. A response was not immediately received.

For Caine, the letter mirrors a moment from his own confirmation.

In 2025, Slotkin asked him during his U.S. Senate hearing whether he would push back if ordered to do something illegal.

"Senator, I think that's the duty and the job that I have, yes," he answered.

Caine built that confirmation on a pledge to stay out of politics, telling senators he had "never worn any political merchandise" in 34 years in uniform.