Pope Leo Requests Mail Ballot to Vote in Illinois Midterms

Pope Leo XIV, the Chicago-born leader of the Catholic Church, has requested a mail ballot to vote in Illinois’ midterm election, according to the Will County clerk’s office.

“Robert Francis Prevost is on the list of individuals who requested a vote by mail ballot for the upcoming election,” Kim Fladhammer, the clerk’s office chief of staff, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The request was made Oct. 3, and the ballot was sent to his registered address in New Lenox. From there it must travel to Vatican City, where Leo has led the church since May 2025.

Sources told WJOL that someone close to the pope made the request. It was not immediately known whether he has returned the ballot.

Matt Dietrich, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said any registered Illinois voter may vote by mail without giving a reason. Overseas citizens can also use federal absentee voting procedures.

“Until 2010, it was considered absentee, and you had to have an excuse. But that’s all gone away. So that’s obviously what he’s doing,” Dietrich said.

Leo’s ballot includes the race to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, Gov. JB Pritzker’s reelection bid, and Will County judicial and county contests.

A Pope With a Voting Record

Records show Prevost voted in the 2012, 2014 and 2016 Republican primaries and in the 2008 and 2010 Democratic primaries. He also voted in the 2012, 2014, 2018 and 2024 general elections.

He did not vote in Illinois’ March primary this year. Illinois voters do not register by party and may choose either party’s ballot in a primary.

Leo, 71, was born in Chicago and grew up in suburban Dolton. Mail ballots are handled by the Will County clerk in Joliet.

He has clashed with President Donald Trump over the Iran war, immigration enforcement and Venezuela. Trump in April called the pope “terrible for foreign policy” and later said he would not apologize.

Leo answered aboard the papal plane to Algeria. “I’m not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel,” he said, according to NPR.

The pope has been an outspoken critic of mass deportations and family separation and has opposed military strikes and armed conflict.

Leo returned to the Vatican on Oct. 18, four days after having part of his right lung removed, the Sun-Times reported. The surgery confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, and he has gradually resumed public duties.

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