Pope Leo XIV Casts First Ballot by a Sitting Pope in a US Election
Seven Lights
Pope Leo XIV has voted in Tuesday’s midterm elections, the Vatican confirmed Friday, becoming the first pope known to have cast a ballot in a United States election. The pontiff, born Robert Prevost of Chicago, submitted a mail-in ballot from Vatican City to Illinois, where the Will County clerk’s office confirmed he is registered at an address in New Lenox and appeared on the list of voters who requested a mail-in ballot.
“The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,” the Vatican said in a statement. It said Mr. Prevost “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so” and that “in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago.”
He filed the ballot request on October 3, days before surgery for lung cancer, from which he has been recovering at the Vatican since his release from a hospital on October 17. The Vatican said he also voted whenever eligible during his nearly two decades as a missionary and later bishop in Peru; he holds Peruvian citizenship as well as American.
Election records show a mixed voting history in his home state. The Associated Press, citing Illinois records, reported that Mr. Prevost took Democratic ballots in the 2008 and 2019 primaries and Republican ballots in 2012, 2014 and 2016, after moving from Cook County to the more conservative Will County. He has submitted a ballot in every general election since 2000 except 2020 and 2022, the AP reported. His party affiliation is currently undeclared, the Will County clerk’s office said.
His Illinois ballot included Governor JB Pritzker’s reelection bid, the race to succeed retiring Senator Dick Durbin, and a House contest between Democratic Representative Jonathan Jackson and Republican Christian Maxwell.
The announcement carried no indication of the pope’s choices, and the Vatican has kept his politics deliberately vague. At a general audience last month, Leo told the faithful to leave behind “all passivity and indifference” toward current events and to engage in civic life. Church teaching urges Catholics to weigh policy and conscience in voting rather than endorse parties, a posture the pope has followed in public: he has clashed repeatedly with the Trump administration over immigration and the treatment of migrants, while avoiding explicit electoral appeals.
The pope’s vote closes a rare civic chapter of an American pontificate. He resumes public duties this week, with a trip to South America planned for next month.