What changed
Pope Leo XIV has submitted a mail-in ballot for Illinois’s 2026 midterm elections, making him the first pope reported to vote in a US election.
The ballot was requested from the Will County Clerk’s Office on 3 October. Leo, 71, was born in Chicago and is the first US citizen to lead the Vatican.
Why it matters
The vote gives an unusual, concrete shape to Leo’s dual identity: head of the Catholic Church and American citizen. The Holy See says he regards democratic participation as both a right and a civic duty, and says he has voted whenever eligible, including during his years in Peru.
That does not reveal his choices or party preference. It also says nothing, on its own, about turnout or the result when Americans vote on 3 November.
But the timing is hard to miss. Leo recently underwent surgery after a lung-cancer diagnosis and is scheduled to travel to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru in early November. At the same time, his public relationship with Donald Trump’s administration has been tense over immigration, peace and the war involving Iran.
His ballot is therefore more than a ceremonial first. It places the pope inside the same democratic process that will shape the final years of Trump’s presidency, even as the Vatican insists his central mission is to preach peace.
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