CHICAGO — If the question is whether the first American pope votes Republican or Democratic, the Illinois record answers: both.
Since 2000, Robert Francis Prevost — Pope Leo XIV — has voted in five Illinois primary elections, requesting Democratic ballots twice and Republican ballots three times, according to records held by the Illinois State Board of Elections. The records do not show which candidates he supported; a voter’s ballot choices are secret.
The split follows where he was registered. While registered in Cook County, Prevost requested Democratic primary ballots in 2008 and 2010. After his registration moved to suburban Will County, he requested Republican primary ballots in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
In general elections, the records show he submitted ballots in every general election since 2000 except those in 2020 and 2022. After his election as pope in May 2025, State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich confirmed that Prevost remained an active Will County voter and had mailed in a ballot for the November 2024 presidential election.
Leo, 71, is registered at the New Lenox address of his older brother, John Prevost. Kim Fladhammer, chief of staff to the Will County Clerk, confirmed the pope requested a mail ballot on Oct. 3 for Tuesday’s midterm elections — the request first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. Records show he did not vote in Illinois’ March 2026 primary.
Illinois does not register voters by party. Any voter may request either party’s ballot in a primary, and doing so does not make the voter a member of that party. Americans living overseas vote by mail under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, and the Vatican has said Leo voted whenever he was eligible, including during his years as a missionary and bishop in Peru.
The Vatican confirmed Friday that the pope has submitted his mail-in ballot for the Nov. 3 midterms — the first vote cast by a sitting pope in a U.S. election.
Photo: Edgar Beltrán / The Pillar, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
