Pope Leo XIV has submitted a mail-in ballot in Illinois ahead of next week's US midterm elections, the Vatican confirmed on Friday, making him the first pope in history to cast a vote in an American election.
"The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes," the Holy See Press Office said in a statement, adding that Leo had exercised his right to vote "whenever he was eligible to do so," including during the years he spent as a missionary bishop in Peru. According to NBC News reporting on his voting record, the pope requested his mail ballot from the Will County Clerk's Office on October 3.
Leo, 71, was elected in May 2025 as the first US-born pontiff, a Chicago native who later worked for decades in Peru before rising through the Vatican hierarchy. He underwent surgery to remove part of his right lung after a cancer diagnosis just weeks after requesting his ballot, but the Vatican says he will still travel to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru in early November.
The pope's ballot arrives against the backdrop of a notably tense relationship with the Trump administration. The two have clashed over immigration enforcement and the US-Israeli strikes on Iran; after Leo called for peace in April, Trump told reporters, "I'm not a big fan of Pope Leo." The pope responded only that "the mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace."
Tuesday's election will decide control of both chambers of Congress, with polling suggesting Democrats are favored to retake the House and within reach of the Senate — a result that would reshape the final two years of Trump's term regardless of how the pope, or any other single voter, marked a ballot.