What role with the US military take at the polls?

What role with the US military take at the polls?

National Guard members in at least seven states will have some form of a role around Tuesday’s highly charged midterm elections.

As Americans head to the polls, plain clothes National Guard soldiers are set to help monitor ballot boxes in seven Washington state counties, Iowa guardsmen are tasked with monitoring and defending election networks, and Colorado Guard members will be assisting with election cybersecurity.

Those are just a few examples of the military’s role before and during Nov. 3, an election that has received intense scrutiny as Democrats look to win control of the House and Senate and President Trump has asserted he would do “anything necessary” to ensure honest elections.

A majority of Americans , however, do not think troops should be used at polling sites.

A new survey released by The Democracy and Security Network at the German Marshall Fund of the United States said those pushing back at the use of troops at the polls say it damages the public’s confidence in the military as an institution.

Loren Voss, one of the researchers who conducted the survey, said that out of the 2,800 Americans polled, 59 percent said that the president should not use the federal military to monitor or administer elections.

She told The Hill there is a generalized fear around federal interference in the elections, be it by a federalized National Guard presence, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or FBI agents, and having members of the military help around polling stations only adds to that concern of interference .

“This is just another instance of using the National Guard for something that should be a civilian mission ,” she said on the use of the guard at ballot boxes in Washington. “That is just so fraught for the potential of people thinking that there’s something untoward going on. You just shouldn’t take that risk.”

Read on to see how states are utilizing their guardsmen at thehill.com .

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