Pope Leo Votes in a U.S. Election: the First Pontiff to Cast a Ballot Sends a Mail Ballot From Chicago
The Vatican confirmed Friday that Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, has submitted a mail-in ballot for the November 3 midterms - the first time a pope has ever voted in an American election.
CHICAGO - Pope Leo XIV has become the first pontiff to vote in a United States election. The Vatican press office said Friday that the American-born pope has submitted a mail-in ballot in Chicago for the November 3 midterm elections, a historic first confirmed four days before Election Day. "In keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago," the Vatican said. "The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes." The Vatican did not say which candidates he voted for.
Leo, 71, was born in Chicago and is the first American-born pope; he was elected by the world's cardinals in May 2025. He is registered to vote in Illinois under his birth name, Robert Francis Prevost, at an address in New Lenox, in Will County, and he requested his ballot on October 3, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, citing the Will County Clerk's office. In Illinois, voters this fall choose a successor to retiring Senator Dick Durbin and decide whether to re-elect Governor JB Pritzker.
The ballot is a first for a pope, but not for the man. The Holy See press office said Leo has exercised his right to vote as a U.S. citizen whenever he was eligible, including during his nearly two decades as a missionary and then a bishop in Peru. Illinois election records show Prevost voted in five primary elections since 2000 - requesting Democratic ballots in 2008 and 2010 and Republican ballots in 2012, 2014 and 2016 - and in every general election since 2000 except 2020 and 2022, the Associated Press reported.
For Houston's Catholic community - one of the largest in the South - the news lands in the middle of a record early-voting week, as a civics lesson from the top of their church: the head of 1.4 billion Catholics, living in an absolute monarchy that holds no elections, took the trouble to request a ballot by mail from Rome's distance. Whatever his choices on it, the Vatican's message was the act itself: participation is, in the pope's stated view, both a right and a duty.
