On April 29, 2026, in his House Armed Services testimony, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked by Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-HI) whether he would comply with a hypothetical Trump order to deploy troops to polling places during the 2026 midterm elections. Tokuda told him such a deployment would violate the federal law that prohibits sending federal troops to voting locations unless that is 'necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.'
Hegseth responded by deflecting the hypothetical with a false historical claim: 'I will note that in 2024, troops were depl... — that was Joe Biden by the way, Joe Biden — were deployed to polling locations in 15 states.' He repeated: '2024 — Joe Biden — troops deployed to polling locations in 15 states. Explain that one to me.' The next day, in Senate Armed Services testimony, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) challenged him on the claim. Hegseth reiterated: 'By the way, in 2024, under the Biden administration, 15 states did deploy troops to polling stations.'
CNN's Daniel Dale fact-checked the claim. CNN contacted the 15 states that an Election Day 2024 Stars and Stripes article said had activated Guard troops for that day. All 13 states that responded said none of their troops were deployed to polling locations; the other two, Alabama and Tennessee, did not respond, and CNN said it could not find evidence they sent troops to polling locations. Snopes separately heard from 10 states, all of which said no National Guard members were present at polling stations. The Guard's role in those states was cybersecurity support, internal liaison work with election offices, or — in three cases (Hawaii, Oregon, Washington) — the state Guard was never actually activated for the 2024 election at all. Iowa Guard spokesperson Jackie Schmillen: 'We have never gone to a polling station as part of an election.' Arizona Guard spokesperson Erin Hannigan: 'The Arizona National Guard did not deploy National Guardsmen to polling locations in 2024.'
The further problem: even where state Guards did support 2024 elections, those activations were ordered by state governors, not by President Biden. The federal-government-deployed-troops-to-polling-places framing Hegseth used twice on the record is wrong on the activation authority and on the actual deployments. National Guard Bureau senior official Ellis Hopkins, the day before the 2024 election: of the 10 states that had Guard personnel supporting the election as of that day, 'None of them are in a civil disturbance or civil response mode. They're in general support or in supporting cyber networks.'
The context that makes the false claim consequential: Hegseth offered it in answer to Tokuda's actual question, whether he would obey an unlawful order from Trump in 2026, by describing a Biden-era precedent for troops at polling places that did not exist. CNN noted that Trump has not said he plans to send troops to polling locations in any future election.
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry previously said 11 of the 15 states responded to CNN; CNN's fact check reports that 13 responded and all said no troops were deployed to polling locations, while two did not respond. The title previously said CNN “confirms none did”; because two states did not answer, it now says every state that answered said none were. The entry also attributed a reference to Posse Comitatus to Tokuda, which the cited reporting does not include, and said the administration may be building a public-record narrative for a future order; that speculation has been removed.