rome —
Pope Leo
The Vatican announced in a statement Friday that the first American pope “submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago.” “The Pope expresses his belief in the right and obligation of the people to participate in the democratic process,” the statement said.
British historian and author Michael Walsh, who has written several books on the papacy, said Leo XIV would be the first pope to vote in a democratic, secular election.
“I don’t think a pope has ever voted in a democratic election,” he told CNN.
Records show the pope is registered to vote in the Chicago suburb of New Lenox, where his brother John lives, using his baptismal name Robert Francis Prevost. The Chicago-born pope has voted in both Republican and Democratic primaries in recent years, and is also voting in the 2024 presidential election.
Since being elected pope in May 2025, the pope has encouraged public participation and called for people’s voices to be heard on the US-Israel war against Iran.
The pope has clashed with President Donald Trump over the Iran war and immigration crackdown, and earlier this year the president launched an unprecedented series of broadsides against Pope Leo XIV. President Trump has been less critical of the pope lately, often speaking about how the pope’s eldest brother Louis is a supporter of the pope.
The pope’s vote is expected to include Illinois’ U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races, as well as U.S. House, state and county races.
The Pope met with Illinois gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker at the Vatican in November 2025. The two discussed immigration enforcement, but the pope later expressed disapproval of Illinois’ medically assisted dying law, which Pritzker signed.
Leo XIV has long been interested in Illinois politics. In 2011, when Robert Prevost was pastor, he sent a personal message to then-Illinois Governor Pat Quinn thanking him for abolishing the death penalty in Prevost’s home state of Illinois.
It is not clear whether the pope sent his ballot by mail from the Vatican, but his brother John was in the Vatican on Wednesday with a group of pilgrims from St. Jude Parish in New Lenox to meet with the pope. Before Wednesday’s Vatican statement, an official with the Will County Clerk’s Office told the Chicago Sun-Times that Robert Francis Prevost was among a “list of individuals who have requested to vote by mail in the upcoming election.”
Despite being the head of state, the Pope is a US citizen and is allowed to vote in US elections.
CNN has reached out to the Will County Clerk’s Office for comment.
Laura Sherman contributed to this report.
