Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is pushing troops to register and vote in the 2026 midterms with a one-day stand-down, drawing praise and skepticism alike.
The Hill reported that Hegseth is ramping up a get-out-the-vote campaign aimed at U.S. service members, urging them to register for the 2026 midterm elections while stopping short of telling them which candidates to support.
He also issued a stand-down order giving troops one day off this month to cast a ballot. The order is to be carried out by Oct. 15 and is set to continue in even-numbered election years.
Hegseth framed the push as a basic duty of citizenship for people who defend the country. In a Friday video, the Pentagon chief made the case in plain terms.
"Every warrior deserves an opportunity to cast his or her ballot and be confident that it will be counted. Keep our nation the land of the free and the home of the brave."
He added a short directive: “Get registered and vote.”
Hegseth pointed to roughly 300,000 troops who were not registered two years ago. Federal Voting Assistance Program figures cited in the same reporting show the scale of the gap. About 67 percent of active-duty members were registered in the 2024 election, down three points from 2020. Participation among active-duty personnel was estimated at 42 percent in 2024, down from 47 percent in 2020.
Around 71 percent of the 1.3 million active-duty force is eligible for absentee ballots with special protections because they serve away from their voting residence. That is the practical problem the stand-down is built to address.
A one-page Defense Department memo on the military voting stand-down directs commanders to give service members time for training, processing, and submission of Federal Post Card Applications if they choose to vote absentee. Troops are to coordinate with Unit Voting Assistance Officers, review state voting rules, and submit the form in time to receive ballots.
That process is the difference between a slogan and a workable absentee system. For deployed and relocated service members, missing a deadline often means missing the election.
Meaghan Mobbs, director of the Center for American Safety and Security at the Independent Women’s Forum and a former Army paratrooper who served in Afghanistan, told The Hill the stand-down is more visible than the Pentagon’s usual election messaging. She still tied it to an old legal duty, not a political stunt.
"Yes, a department-wide voting stand-down personally announced by the secretary is more visible than the Pentagon’s normal election messaging. But the military has a longstanding legal responsibility to help service members register, obtain absentee ballots and vote."
Mobbs drew a bright line on partisanship. “As a former soldier, I believe the essential line is nonpartisanship,” she said. “The military should never tell troops whom to support, but it should ensure that they can participate.”
She called the order “extremely valuable” because military underparticipation is a “measurable problem.” From a national-security view, she argued, civic participation matters when adversaries try to persuade Americans that U.S. institutions are corrupt or not worth joining.
"A military whose members are informed, engaged and invested in our constitutional system is a stronger military."
Carrie A. Lee, a civil-military relations expert and senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, raised a different concern. She said she worries the stand-down could be read as the secretary ordering troops to vote, which would be improper.
"I do worry about whether this stand-down will be interpreted as an order from the secretary directing service members to vote, which would be inappropriate."
Lee also noted a policy contrast inside the government. She said the stand-down “departs significantly from the administration’s policy across the rest of the federal workforce,” after the Trump administration last year rescinded executive orders that had allowed federal workers administrative leave to vote and put tighter leave guidance in place.
She still pointed to history. During World War II, she said, the Roosevelt administration ran a major get-out-the-vote effort in 1944 so deployed GIs could cast ballots. Lee called heavy emphasis during a peacetime midterm unusual, but said there is precedent for supporting military voting in elections. She added that she would like the same philosophy applied across the federal government so more workers can cast ballots.
On the other side of the reaction, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon praised Hegseth on his “War Room” show Friday, saying the defense secretary “threw down and threw down hard today,” and tying the moment to a larger historical frame: “I told you it’s Washington, Lincoln and Trump.”
Critics have also pointed to Hegseth’s political appearances while he holds the Pentagon job. In May he went to Kentucky in connection with a Republican primary fight involving Rep. Thomas Massie and former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein. In August he campaigned for Rep. Zach Nunn of Iowa, who is seeking reelection.
Pentagon officials said Hegseth attended those events in his personal capacity. Critics still raised potential Hatch Act concerns about a Cabinet officer mixing campaign politics with public office. Massie later lost the primary and, last month, introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth.
Those fights sit beside the voting stand-down rather than inside it. The order itself does not instruct troops how to vote. It clears time and paperwork help so service members stationed far from home can register and get ballots counted.
Hegseth has stressed that leadership should not tell service members for whom to vote. The stated goal is participation: register, obtain a ballot, and use it. Federal Voting Assistance Program data already show registration and turnout among active-duty members sliding between 2020 and 2024. Hundreds of thousands of troops sat out the registration rolls two years ago by Hegseth’s own count.
That is the concrete record behind the stand-down. Military life makes ordinary voting harder. Absentee rules differ by state. Deadlines move fast. Unit schedules do not bend easily around Election Day. A department-wide day set aside for Federal Post Card Applications and voting assistance is one way to meet a duty the armed forces have carried for years.
Whether the order boosts turnout remains an open question the early reporting does not answer. What it does settle is the official posture from the top of the Pentagon: warriors should be able to vote, ballots should be counted, and commanders must make room for the paperwork that makes absentee voting real.
Troops already carry the nation’s hardest missions. Making sure they can cast a lawful ballot without partisan coaching is not radical, it is the bare minimum a free country owes the people who defend it.
