There is a "real risk" behind mass mailing ballots out to everyone on a state's voting rolls, and Americans deserve to have confidence in the upcoming election, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday.
"What we want and what the attorney general and all of our team want is making sure that this election is free and fair and that every ballot is counted appropriately," Pompeo said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "In this election, we expect an enormous turnout ... I want to make sure that every secretary of state and every election process and person knows what they are doing and have been doing to execute [it] appropriately."
Pompeo, a former U.S. representative from Kansas, said he has also voted using absentee ballots a few times, and insisted that it's really important to get the election right.
"I've seen this all over the world," said Pompeo. "The State Department tries to make sure that other nations have free and fair elections. We have to make sure that ours is done well and technically right."
He added that voters need to make sure that their ballots are counted.
"I hope that we get this right," he said. "It is essential for American democracy ... when I hear concerns expressed in states, it causes me great consternation as well. I hope that we can pull that off. I think we can. America always has."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.