VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV has voted in next week's United States midterm elections, the Holy See Press Office said on Friday, making the Chicago-born pontiff the first pope known to have cast a ballot in an American general election.

"Pope Leo XIV has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so," the press office said. It added that "in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago."

No previous pope had an American ballot to return. Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago in 1955, is the first United States citizen to hold the office, and he has kept his Illinois voter registration since his election in May 2025. Using it four days before the November 3 vote puts the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics on the electoral roll of a country whose president has attacked him by name.

The Will County clerk's office in Illinois confirmed that the pope had asked for a postal ballot. Kim Fladhammer, the office's chief of staff, told the Chicago Sun-Times that "Robert Francis Prevost is on the list of individuals who requested a vote by mail ballot for the upcoming election." Fladhammer told NBC News that the request was filed on October 3.

He is registered at an address in New Lenox, the Will County town southwest of Chicago where his elder brother, John, lives, according to OSV News. The Sun-Times reported that his ballot covers the Illinois Senate seat being vacated by Senator Dick Durbin, the re-election bid of Governor JB Pritzker, and a slate of Will County judicial and county offices.

Neither the Vatican nor the clerk's office said how the ballot travelled from Rome to Illinois, or on what date it was returned. The clerk's office told NBC News on Thursday that it had not yet received a completed ballot from him.

The Vatican statement went on to say that "during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so," a reference to the nearly two decades Leo spent in the country as an Augustinian missionary and later as bishop of Chiclayo. He holds Peruvian citizenship as well as American.

"The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes," the press office said.

Public voting records in Illinois show a crossing pattern. The Sun-Times, citing those records, reported that Prevost took Democratic primary ballots in 2008 and 2010 and Republican primary ballots in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Its review found general-election votes in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2024, and no vote in the Illinois primary this March. CBS News, citing The Associated Press, reported that he had taken part in every general election since 2000 apart from those in 2020 and 2022.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops welcomed the disclosure. "In voting, our Holy Father sets the example that encourages each citizen to exercise their civic responsibility," said Chieko Noguchi, the conference's executive director of public affairs. The conference has urged Catholics to vote in a way that places their faith before their politics.

Pritzker, who is on the same ballot, wrote on social media that if the pope could vote from Vatican City, so could anyone else. The governor is seeking a third term against the Republican Darren Bailey and the independent Collin Corbett, according to Fox News.

Matt Dietrich, a spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections, told the Sun-Times that any registered voter in the state may vote by mail, and that before 2010 postal voting counted as absentee voting and required a reason. Americans living abroad have a right to a postal ballot under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.

Leo's relationship with Washington has been openly strained. On April 12 he was the target of a Truth Social post from President Donald Trump, who wrote that "Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy" and that "Leo should get his act together as Pope." Trump also told reporters he was "not a big fan" of the pontiff, calling him "a very liberal person and he's a man who doesn't believe in stopping crime."

The post followed months of papal criticism of the administration. Leo has called for deep reflection on the treatment of migrants in the United States and, in September 2025, questioned whether an anti-abortion stance sat alongside that treatment, saying he did not know if that was pro-life. In a Palm Sunday address in March he called the conflict with Iran atrocious, and he has described Trump's threat to destroy Iranian civilisation as truly unacceptable.

The vote comes weeks after surgery on a lung tumour, which the Vatican announced on October 13. Leo was discharged from hospital on October 17, and his doctors said on October 21 that he needed no further cancer treatment. He has returned to his Vatican schedule, CBS News reported, with a trip to South America planned for next month.

Polls across the United States open on Tuesday. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are being contested, along with 35 of the 100 Senate seats and governorships in 36 states.