In two thousand years of Catholic Church history, no pope has ever cast a ballot in a secular election. Until now.
The Vatican confirmed Friday, October 30, that Pope Leo XIV has submitted a mail-in ballot in Chicago ahead of the November 3 U.S. midterm elections — making him the first pope ever to vote in an American election, and, as British historian Michael Walsh told CNN, likely the first pope ever to vote in any democratic, secular election at all.
Who he was, and who he still is
Leo, 71, was born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago on September 14, 1955. He is the first American-born pope, elected by the cardinals in May 2025 — and, crucially, he never renounced his American citizenship. He also holds Peruvian citizenship from his decades of missionary work there.
That is the legal heart of the story. The pope is a head of state — the Holy See has been recognized as an independent state since 1929, and Vatican City functions as an absolute monarchy with no political elections of its own. But under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986, American citizens living abroad keep the right to vote by absentee ballot. As UCLA voting-rights expert Richard Hasen put it: “He’s an American citizen living abroad. He didn’t lose his voting rights when he moved to the Vatican.”
So on the rolls in Will County, Illinois, there is a voter named Robert Francis Prevost — registered at his older brother John’s address in suburban New Lenox, outside Chicago. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, which first reported the story, the county clerk’s office confirmed the pope requested a mail-in ballot on October 3.
A citizen’s record, not just a ceremony
The Vatican’s statement was careful — it said nothing about candidates, parties or issues — but it was emphatic about one thing: this is not a one-time gesture.
“Pope Leo XIV has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so,” the Holy See Press Office said. “In keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago.” The statement added that “during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so,” and that the Holy Father believes in “the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes.”
The records back that up. Illinois election records show he voted in the 2024 presidential election, and that since 2000 he has cast ballots in general elections in every cycle except 2020 and 2022. He has crossed party lines in primaries — taking Democratic ballots in 2008 and 2010 and Republican ballots in 2012, 2014 and 2016. (Illinois has no party registration; any voter can choose either party’s primary ballot, and the records show only which ballot he requested, never whom he supported.)
There is one quiet detail worth noting: he requested this year’s ballot on October 3 — ten days before undergoing surgery to remove a tumor from his right lung. He made sure his vote counted before his hospital stay.
What makes it unique
Strip away the headlines and there are really three firsts folded into one:
- The first American pope, born and raised in Chicago, a city kid who became pontiff and stayed a U.S. citizen.
- The first pope to vote in a U.S. election — confirmed by the Vatican itself, after 2,000 years of papal history.
- Likely the first pope to vote in any secular election, anywhere — a sovereign monarch who governs an absolute monarchy, standing in line (by mail) as an ordinary citizen of Illinois.
And the Vatican will say nothing more about it: no candidates, no parties. The pope’s vote is, like his American citizenship, simply a fact about the man under the white cassock.
On his Will County ballot: the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, the Illinois governor’s race (Gov. JB Pritzker is seeking re-election — and met the pope at the Vatican last November), House seats, and state, county and judicial contests. One absentee ballot in Will County will not decide any of them. But for the first time in history, a pope voted anyway.
Sources: Vatican/Holy See Press Office statement (Oct 30, 2026); Reuters; CNN; AP; USA Today; Chicago Sun-Times; New York Post. All as of October 30, 2026.