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Hegseth Urges Military to Register and Vote in Midterms

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promoted mail-in voting for service members and their families.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is encouraging US service members stationed overseas or far from their voting location to cast mail-in ballots this year amid the Trump administration’s attempts to restrict the option (AP)

What this story says

  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth encouraged U.S. service members and their families to register and vote in the upcoming midterm elections.
  • Hegseth stated that 300,000 troops missed registration opportunities two years ago.
  • About 67 percent of active-duty U.S. troops were registered to vote in the 2024 election, a decrease from 2020.
  • The Trump administration had previously attempted to restrict mail-in voting, a move that was halted by the Supreme Court.

Who covered it

Left 71%(5)Centre 29%(2)Right 0%(0)

Percentages are shares of the 7 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .

Trust

60/100

Craft

60/100

Hype

41/100

7 sources · methodology

Thin on the right so far

None of the 7 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has urged U.S. service members and their families to register and vote in the upcoming midterm elections. In a video message, Hegseth stated that 300,000 troops missed registration opportunities two years ago. He also noted that approximately 67 percent of active-duty U.S. troops were registered to vote in the 2024 election, a three-point drop compared to 2020, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program.

Hegseth's message supports mail-in voting, a process that the Trump administration had previously sought to restrict. The administration's legal efforts to overhaul elections, which included attempts to require states to use a standardized envelope design and submit voter lists online, were stopped by the Supreme Court. These changes would have allowed the U.S. Postal Service to refuse mail-in ballots from states not complying with the new rules.

Disagreement on Trump administration's mail-in voting stance

The Independent reported that President Donald Trump and administration officials argued their failed efforts to impose nationwide restrictions on mail-in ballots did not apply to military members. However, voting rights advocates and election law experts warned that there was no process in place to ensure the U.S. Postal Service would reliably deliver those ballots. The Independent also noted that White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales stated the SAVE America Act had exceptions for military use of mail-in ballots, but opposed universal mail-in voting due to fraud concerns. Trump himself has described mail-in voting as "cheating" and "inherently corrupt."

What the coverage left out

None of the reports below mention the specific legal challenges or court cases that led to the Supreme Court stopping the Trump administration's mail-in ballot changes. The digests do not provide details on the specific arguments made by voting rights advocates or election law experts regarding the postal service's role in delivering mail-in ballots.

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 4 times, most recently on 25 Sept 2026, 22:45, and will add the sides that appear.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

5 rated outlets

  • Left-rated reports focused on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's promotion of mail-in voting for service members and their families, particularly in contrast to the Trump administration's past efforts to restrict such voting. The Independent's full report highlighted Hegseth's message that "Every warrior deserves an opportunity to cast his or her ballot, and be confident that it will be counted." These reports also detailed the Trump administration's failed legal battles to overhaul elections and the Supreme Court's intervention. The New Republic's headline framed Hegseth's message as a "Veiled Order to Military to Vote Republican in Midterms," and its digest noted Hegseth pointed out that the number of unregistered military members would outnumber the populations of multiple blue cities.

Centre

2 rated outlets

  • The centre-rated report from The Hill led with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urging U.S. service members to register for the upcoming 2026 midterm elections. It noted that Hegseth mentioned 300,000 troops missed registration opportunities two years ago.

Right

0 rated outlets

No outlet rated right has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Hegseth Urges Military to Register and Vote in Midterms?
Of the 7 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 71% are rated left, 29% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Hegseth Urges Military to Register and Vote in Midterms left or right?
Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 7 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
Is the coverage of Hegseth Urges Military to Register and Vote in Midterms biased?
Hegseth Urges Military to Register and Vote in Midterms is one event reported by 7 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Hegseth Urges Military to Register and Vote in Midterms?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Hegseth Urges Military to Register and Vote in Midterms?
7 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urge military members to do?
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged U.S. service members and their families to register and vote in the upcoming midterm elections. He emphasized that their ballots would be counted and encouraged them to use mail-in voting options.
How many troops missed registration opportunities recently?
Hegseth stated that 300,000 troops missed registration opportunities two years ago. This highlights a concern about military voter participation that he aimed to address with his call to action.
What was the Trump administration's stance on military mail-in voting?
The Trump administration had previously attempted to restrict mail-in voting nationwide. However, they argued these efforts did not apply to military members. The Supreme Court ultimately stopped the administration from implementing changes that could have affected mail-in ballot delivery.
What percentage of active-duty troops were registered to vote?
About 67 percent of active-duty U.S. troops were registered to vote in the 2024 election. This figure represents a three-point drop compared to the 2020 election, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program.

Read it at the source

7 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

Hegseth on Military Voting | MediaBias News