On Friday, 30 October 2026, the Vatican said Pope Leo XIV has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago for the United States midterms, becoming the first pope to vote in a United States election, and likely the first pope to vote in a secular democratic election.
Leo, 71, born in Chicago, is the first American-born pope, elected in May 2025. He remains a United States citizen despite being a head of state, and is registered under his birth name Robert Francis Prevost in New Lenox, a Chicago suburb where his brother John lives. He requested the mail ballot on 3 October, according to the Will County Clerk, via the Chicago Sun-Times.
He has voted in the 2024 presidential election and in both Republican and Democratic primaries in recent years. His midterm ballot is expected to include Illinois Senate, governor, House, and state and county races.
Context matters here. Leo has clashed with the Trump administration over the Iran war and immigration crackdown. Trump launched unprecedented broadsides against him earlier in his tenure, but has lately been less critical, frequently noting Leo’s eldest brother Louis is a Trump supporter.
Why the story travels is simple: never in 2,000 years of the papacy has a pope, head of a sovereign state, mailed a ballot for a United States midterm, in a race where his own country is at war and his administration critics are on the ballot. The question “who did the Pope vote for?” is built-in virality.
What is confirmed is the Vatican statement that the ballot was submitted in Chicago, the registration and ballot-request facts via Will County and the Chicago Sun-Times as reported by Reuters and CNN, and that he is the first American pope, Chicago-born, elected in May 2025.
What is not confirmed is who he voted for. The Vatican did not say. Whether he mailed it from the Vatican is also not clear, according to CNN, though brother John was at the Vatican on Wednesday with New Lenox pilgrims. Historian Michael Walsh’s assessment that this is likely the first pope to vote in a secular democratic election is expert opinion, not a Vatican-certified historical audit.
Sources: CNN, 30 Oct 2026; Reuters, 30 Oct 2026.