Pope Leo XIV has done something no sitting pontiff was previously known to have done: cast a ballot in a United States general election.
The Vatican confirmed Friday, October 30, that the Chicago-born pope submitted a mail-in ballot for the November 3 midterm election. He voted as a U.S. citizen under his birth name, Robert Francis Prevost, while living at the Vatican.
The Vatican did not disclose which candidates he selected. That distinction matters: the historic act was participation, not a public endorsement.
What the Vatican confirmed
The Holy See Press Office said Leo has exercised his U.S. voting rights whenever he was eligible and continued that practice after becoming pope. Its statement, published by Vatican News, said he believes in “the right and the duty” of citizens to participate in democracy.
Reuters and The Associated Press reported that Leo is the first pontiff to vote in a U.S. general election. His predecessors retained citizenship in their home countries, but no comparable vote by a sitting pope has been documented.
A Chicago ballot traveled to Vatican City
Leo, 71, was born in Chicago and remains registered in suburban Will County, Illinois. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that he requested a vote-by-mail ballot on October 3.
Illinois allows registered voters to cast ballots by mail, while federal law protects absentee voting access for eligible American citizens living overseas. The Vatican statement said Leo submitted the completed ballot in Chicago but did not explain how it traveled from Vatican City or when election officials received it.
The ballot includes an open U.S. Senate race to replace retiring Senator Dick Durbin, the Illinois governor’s contest and local races in Will County. As with any voter, Leo’s selections are private.
He also voted while living in Peru
Before his election as pope in May 2025, Leo spent more than two decades serving in Peru and became a Peruvian citizen. The Vatican said he voted there whenever he was eligible, reinforcing its description of civic participation as a long-standing personal practice rather than a new gesture prompted by this year’s campaign.
Public Illinois records show Prevost participated in several U.S. primary and general elections before becoming pope. Primary participation does not reveal which candidate a voter supported, and Illinois voters do not permanently register with a political party.
Why the vote is historically unusual
A pope is both the spiritual leader of the world’s Catholics and the sovereign of Vatican City. Modern pontiffs have generally avoided direct involvement in party politics, even when speaking forcefully about war, migration, poverty, abortion, capital punishment and other public issues.
Leo’s ballot therefore occupies an unusual space: he participated as a private American citizen while serving as a foreign head of state and leader of a global church. The Vatican emphasized the civic principle and kept the political choice confidential.
One ballot in a record early-voting surge
The pope’s ballot joins more than 43 million early votes already cast across the United States, according to an Associated Press analysis. Early participation is running nearly 10 million votes ahead of the comparable point before the 2022 midterms, with especially large increases in several states hosting competitive Senate races.
For Leo, the act carried no disclosed partisan message. Its significance was simpler and more durable: for the first time, the leader of the Catholic Church entered an American general election as a voter.
Sources: Vatican News, Reuters, Associated Press and the Chicago Sun-Times.
