Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to rule out deploying troops to polling stations during November's midterm elections when pressed by Democratic Rep. Jill Tokuda during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday. The exchange centered on whether Hegseth would comply with such orders from President Donald Trump, who has previously expressed regret about not seizing voting machines following his 2020 election loss.
Tokuda read federal statute into the record, noting that it is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison to bring "troops or armed men" to a polling place. She asked directly whether Hegseth would carry out such an order from Trump. The defense secretary repeatedly dodged the question, even as Tokuda pressed him to choose between following the president or the Constitution.
Rather than answer, Hegseth shifted tactics and attacked Trump's predecessor. He claimed that in 2024, troops were deployed to polling locations in 15 states under President Joe Biden. However, this assertion does not match the facts. Approximately 250 National Guard personnel were active across 15 states on Election Day 2024, but no federal troops were ordered to polling places themselves. Federal law would have made any such order illegal.
The Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond when contacted about whether they would rule out sending troops to polling stations for the midterms. Hegseth, having declined to directly answer Tokuda's question, instead pivoted to defending the Pentagon's domestic deployment record. He referenced the dispatch of federalized California National Guard members and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles last summer. A federal judge ruled in September that this deployment violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the use of federal military personnel in domestic law enforcement.
Hegseth claimed that military assistance prevented Los Angeles from burning during the summer unrest. Tokuda's questioning of Hegseth was not unprecedented; she has previously pressed the defense secretary on similar matters before the same committee during a June hearing.
