Vatican City confirmed on Friday that Pope Leo XIV has submitted a mail-in ballot in Chicago for the November 3 midterm elections, making him the first pope known to have voted in a United States election.
Leo, 71, is the first American-born pope in the Catholic Church’s more than 2,000-year history, and his ballot arrives four days before an election that will decide control of both chambers of Congress in the final two years of President Donald Trump’s presidency.
“In keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago,” the Holy See press office said in a statement. “The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes.”
The Vatican said Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost, had exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen whenever he was eligible to do so. It did not say which candidates he voted for, and his participation amounts to no endorsement of any party or candidate.
Leo’s vote was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, which cited the Will County clerk’s office as saying the pope, registered under his birth name at a New Lenox address, requested a mail-in ballot on October 3. New Lenox is a suburb southwest of Chicago, where his brother John lives.
British historian Michael Walsh, who has written several books on the papacy, told CNN that Leo would likely be the first pope to vote in a democratic, secular election. “I don’t think popes have ever voted in a democratic election before,” he said.
Records held by the Illinois State Board of Elections show that Robert Francis Prevost has voted in every general election since 2000 except those in 2020 and 2022, according to reports. He has also voted in five primary elections since 2000, requesting Democratic ballots twice and Republican ballots three times, though Illinois voters must declare a party preference to receive a primary ballot and no such declaration is required in a general election.
His Illinois ballot is expected to include the race to succeed retiring Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, the re-election bid of Governor JB Pritzker, who is seeking a third term, and contests for the House of Representatives and state and county offices. Pritzker met Leo at the Vatican in November 2025.
It remains unclear how the ballot was returned. The Vatican statement did not say whether Leo sent it by mail from the Vatican, although his brother John was at the Vatican on Wednesday with a group of pilgrims from St Jude’s Parish in New Lenox for a meeting with the pope.
Leo also voted whenever he was eligible during his years in Peru, the Vatican said, where he served for more than 20 years as a missionary priest and later as a bishop before his election to the papacy in May 2025. US citizens living overseas can vote by mail under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, an Illinois elections spokesman said.
The October 3 ballot request came 10 days before Leo underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his right lung. He was released from hospital on October 17 and has been slowly resuming his activities at the Vatican since then.
What is confirmed is the ballot itself and the pope’s long record of voting as a citizen. What is not public is how he voted in any race, and the Vatican has given no indication that it will say. The next fixed date in the story is election day itself, Tuesday, November 3, when Illinois voters will join tens of millions of Americans already casting ballots in a record early-voting period.
