Pope Leo votes in US election — the idea sounds impossible, yet the Vatican confirmed on Friday, 30 October 2026, that Pope Leo XIV has submitted a mail-in ballot in Chicago for the US midterm elections on Tuesday, 3 November 2026. The Chicago-born pontiff, 71, has become the first pope to vote in a US election, a historic first confirmed by the Holy See Press Office and reported by Reuters and CNN. The ballot was requested on 3 October from the Will County Clerk's office in Illinois, and it was cast from the Vatican — a remarkable coda to a civic life that began decades before Robert Francis Prevost became pope. The story, trending per news coverage, raises a question millions are now asking: how can the leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church, and the head of state of Vatican City, vote in an American election? The answer lies in the American citizenship he has never given up, a 1986 federal law for citizens living abroad, and a voting record that stretches back to 2000.
Pope Leo Votes in US Election: What the Vatican Confirmed
The Vatican confirmed the vote on Friday, 30 October 2026. "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 a statement. "In keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago." The statement added: "The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes."
The story was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday, 29 October, which quoted the Will County Clerk's office as saying the pope — registered under his birth name, Robert Francis Prevost — had requested a mail-in ballot on 3 October. Kim Fladhammer, chief of staff for the Will County clerk's office, confirmed to the newspaper that "Robert Francis Prevost is on the list of individuals who requested a vote by mail ballot for the upcoming election."
Leo is registered to vote at an address in New Lenox, Illinois, the Chicago suburb where his older brother John lives. It is not clear exactly when, or how, the completed ballot was returned from the Vatican, although his brother John was in Rome this week with a group of pilgrims from St Jude's Parish in New Lenox. The Vatican did not say which candidates the pope voted for, and the ballot is secret — as it is for every voter.
Pope Leo Votes in US Election: Why the Pope Can Vote
Yes — and the reason is straightforward. Pope Leo XIV was born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago on 14 September 1955, and he remains a citizen of the United States. Becoming pope did not change that. "He's an American citizen living abroad. He didn't lose his voting rights when he moved to the Vatican," Richard Hasen, a voting rights expert at the UCLA School of Law, told the New York Post.
Leo also holds Peruvian citizenship, from his two decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru, and Vatican citizenship, which he holds for life as pope. Vatican City has been recognised as an independent state since 1929 and functions as an absolute monarchy without political elections of its own — so the pope's vote is cast in the country of his birth, not the state he leads.
Federal law protects that right. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986 requires states to let Americans living outside the United States register and vote by absentee ballot, with the vote counted in the place where the voter last lived before moving abroad. The law covers citizens working for foreign governments, and the US State Department notes that serving as a foreign head of state may prompt a review of a person's citizenship status — but it does not automatically cost an American their citizenship.
Pope Leo's Voting History: Five Primaries and Nearly Every General Election Since 2000
The 2026 ballot is not a one-off. Illinois election records show that Robert Francis Prevost has voted in five primary elections since 2000, requesting Democratic ballots twice and Republican ballots three times, according to records held by the Illinois State Board of Elections. He submitted ballots in nearly every general election since 2000, except in 2020 and 2022, and most recently voted in the 2024 general election. He did not vote in Illinois' March 2026 primary.
The Vatican confirmed that the pattern continued while he lived abroad: "The Holy Father has also confirmed that, during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so." The records do not show which candidates he supported in any election — and the Vatican has said nothing about his choices this time.
The timing adds a personal note. Leo requested his mail-in ballot on 3 October, ten days before undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his right lung. He was released from hospital on 17 October and has since resumed his activities at the Vatican. The site's earlier report on his diagnosis is covered in Pope Leo XIV Diagnosed With Lung Cancer After Surgery: What the Vatican Said.
What's on Pope Leo's Illinois Ballot in the 2026 Midterms
The pope's ballot is an Illinois ballot, and it carries the same races as any other voter's in Will County. It includes the race for the US Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Dick Durbin, and the contest for Illinois governor, in which Governor JB Pritzker is seeking re-election — along with races for the US House of Representatives and state and county offices.
Across the country, the midterm elections on Tuesday, 3 November 2026, will decide all 435 seats in the US House of Representatives and 35 seats in the US Senate, along with governors' races and thousands of state and local contests. Voters can find what is on their own ballot, and how to check a polling place, in How to Vote in the 2026 Midterms: What's on the Ballot, Early Voting, and How to Check Your Polling Place.
Why No Pope Voted Before Pope Leo
Before Leo XIV, no sitting pope was publicly known to have cast a ballot in a US election. His predecessor, Pope Francis, retained his Argentine citizenship after becoming pontiff in 2013, but there is no publicly documented record of him voting in an Argentine election while pope. British historian Michael Walsh, who has written several books on the papacy, told CNN he believes Leo is the first pope ever to vote in a democratic, secular election. "I don't think popes have ever voted in a democratic election before," Walsh said.
Part of the reason is simple: until Leo, there had never been an American pope. Born in Chicago, elected on 8 May 2025 as the first American-born pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, Leo is the first pontiff who grew up as a US citizen with a vote to cast. His predecessor popes came from countries where they had no comparable path to a ballot — and the Vatican's own citizenship, granted by appointment rather than birth, carries no elections at all.
Since his election, Leo has repeatedly urged people to take part in democratic life. His calls for humanitarian access in the war in Ukraine, including his appeal for an aid corridor, are covered in Pope Leo Urges Putin to Open Aid Corridor for Starving Oleshky.
What Happens Next
Leo's ballot will be counted in Illinois alongside millions of others, and the result of the midterms will be known after polls close on 3 November 2026. The Vatican has said nothing about which candidates he backed, and nothing it has said suggests it ever will — the secrecy of the ballot applies to the pope as it does to every citizen.
What is already certain is the precedent. A sitting pope has now voted in an American election for the first time in history, using the same absentee process available to any US citizen living abroad. For a Church of 1.4 billion people led by a Chicago-born pope, it is a reminder that the man at the top of the world's oldest institution still fills in a ballot like anyone else — and, in the Vatican's words, believes it is both a right and a duty to do so.
Sources: Reuters; CNN; Associated Press; The New York Post; Chicago Sun-Times; Holy See Press Office; Illinois State Board of Elections; US Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (1986).