Latest: Vatican Confirms Pope Leo XIV Voted by Mail in US Midterm Elections

Somewhere on a quiet street in New Lenox, Illinois, there is a mailbox like any other, on a road where neighbours know each other's cars and dogs. This autumn, according to reports, a ballot travelled from that ordinary place toward a county clerk's office, and the name on the paperwork was one the whole world now knows.

The Vatican confirmed on Friday, October 30, 2026, that Pope Leo XIV is voting in the upcoming United States midterm elections. The confirmation came from the Holy See Press Office, and it turned a local election story in suburban Chicago into news that crossed the world in hours.

Before he was Pope Leo XIV, he was Robert Francis Prevost. He remains a citizen of the United States as well as a citizen of Peru, reports say, and the Vatican described his vote as part of a long-standing practice of civic participation.

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 confirms that in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago.

That was the Holy See Press Office statement, as quoted by USA Today and Catholic Review. The Vatican added a second line that said just as much about how he sees the act itself, and it did not mention any candidate, party, or issue.

The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes.

Readers should not read a preference into a confirmation that was, on its face, about participation itself.

How the Pope Leo XIV Mail-In Ballot Was Requested in Will County

The Vatican confirmation followed reporting by the Chicago Sun-Times that the Will County, Illinois, clerk's office had issued the pope a mail-in ballot. According to the Sun-Times, as reported by Catholic Review and USA Today, he requested the mail ballot on October 3.

Catholic Review, citing the Sun-Times, says the pope is registered at a New Lenox, Illinois, address, the same suburban Chicago town in which his elder brother John lives. Kim Fladhammer, chief of staff for the Will County clerk's office, confirmed that "Robert Francis Prevost" was on the list of people who had requested a vote-by-mail ballot, Catholic Review reports.

There is a seperate human detail in that list that is easy to miss. A clerk's office deals in names, addresses, and dates, and on that list the pope appears the way any other voter in Will County appears.

One careful distinction matters here. NBC News' Chicago affiliate confirmed with the county clerk's chief of staff that the pope's ballot had not yet been received as of October 29, according to Catholic Review. The Vatican statement on October 30 says he "has submitted" it, which is not the same as saying it had been received or counted, and this article does not present it that way.

First Pontiff to Vote in a US Election, Reports Say

Catholic Review and OSV News describe Pope Leo as "the first pontiff to vote in a U.S. election." That claim should be attributed to that report, because the Vatican statement itself does not make it. It is a striking claim all the same, given how long popes have come from other countries and how rarely an American has held the office.

His past voting record, as reported by the Sun-Times via USA Today and Catholic Review, stretches back years. He voted in the 2012, 2014, and 2016 Republican primaries, in the 2012, 2014, 2018, and 2024 general elections, and in the 2008 and 2010 Democratic primaries.

Catholic Review adds that he did not vote in the state's March primary in 2026. USA Today notes that Illinois voters do not have to register by party.

The Vatican also said the pope voted whenever he was eligible during his years of residence in Peru, where he is also a citizen, according to USA Today and Catholic Review. The picture that emerges is not of a man voting for the first time, but of a man who has voted, quietly and regularly, wherever he has lived.

Readers following faith and public life in the United States can see related coverage in the Supreme Court hearing a Catholic preschool case in Colorado, in the Lilly Endowment opening $300 million for campus ministries, and in King Charles inaugurating the Church of England General Synod. Each of those stories turns, in its own way, on what faith asks of people who also hold civic duties.

What US Bishops Said About the Pope Voting

Chieko Noguchi, a spokesperson for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, welcomed the news in a statement on October 30. She said the pope's example encourages ordinary citizens to take their own civic responsibility seriously.

In voting, our Holy Father sets the example that encourages each citizen to exercise their civic responsibility.

Noguchi said the bishops' conference has encouraged Catholics to vote "in a way that places our faith before our politics" and to inform their conscience, upholding human dignity and the common good, according to Catholic Review and the Catholic Herald. That framing puts the emphasis back where the Vatican put it: on participation, conscience, and the common good, not on a contest.

For now, the ballot itself remains an ordinary piece of election paperwork, travelling through an ordinary county system. Whether it arrives and is counted will be a matter for Will County records, not for headlines. What is already clear is that a pope once known as Robert Francis Prevost has done what millions of Americans do every election: asked for a ballot and sent it back, trusting the process to do the rest.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.