Hegseth orders a day off for US service members to vote in the midterm elections

The head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, ordered all military commands to halt operations for one day within the next two weeks, to give US service members time to vote in November’s midterm elections, as USA Today reports.

In a video message posted on social media on 2 October, Hegseth said: “We are not telling you who to vote for, but we will give you every opportunity to do so.” According to the memorandum dated 1 October, the order authorises a one-day “stand down” every October in election years, starting in 2026.

“Stand down” is a military term meaning the suspension of regular operations to allow personnel to rest. Such an army-wide order is rare: former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered a “stand down” in 2021 to combat far-right extremism in the ranks of the military.

Hegseth had previously posted another video explaining how service members vote with the federal absentee ballot; the new order aims to give them more time for this. He said that in the past, voting for uniformed personnel has been slow and complex. The memo also states that “all voter-assistance activities must remain strictly non-partisan”.

The initiative comes a month before the midterm elections, while Hegseth has been seen as active in the election campaign: he took part in a rally for Ed Gallrein, the former Navy SEAL who beat Congressman Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s Republican primaries, and gave a speech in August for Congressman Zach Nunn in Iowa. Massie, before the House of Representatives went into recess, had filed articles of impeachment against Hegseth for continuing the American war against Iran without Congress’s approval.

In a speech given on 30 September to troops at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Hegseth criticised Austin and the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, pledging a culture of “only the warrior ethos” at the Pentagon.