The pope may be known as Leo in the Roman Catholic Church, but he is also known as an absentee Illinois voter, and his registration card lists him by his birth name: Robert Francis Prevost.
By laying out decidedly Catholic Christian criticism of the U.S. war in Iran, the Chicago-native pope has opened the door to a look at his own politics.
How did he vote in Illinois primary elections and how politically attuned has the pope been while living overseas, thousands of miles from the red, white and blue?
At his workplace, he’s known as Pope Leo XIV and wears traditional headgear known as a miter to the office.
When he comes to his birthplace, it might be a beloved White Sox cap.
And, at his polling place in southwest suburban Will County, he’s known as Bob Prevost.
But because Prevost – now Pope Leo – has been deployed to global assignments by the Catholic Church, he has been voting absentee in political elections for more than 14 years.
According to county voter records, the would-be Pope Leo took Republican ballots in party primaries during the elections of 2012, 2014 and 2016.
“In Illinois and in all other states for that matter, your voting record and your voting history are public documents….”
At llinois State Board of Elections headquarters in Springfield, longtime official Matt Dietrich said pope, ballplayer, or company president, certain voter information is publicly available.
But if the pope, or anybody else registered to vote in Illinois, takes a Republican ballot in a primary, it amounts to just a snapshot in time as to how they will vote at that moment.
“Correct, and if you look back at someone’s voting history for primary elections, you’ll often find that they’ve voted another party at some point in the past,” Dietrich said.
After taking primarily Republican ballots in Illinois primary elections for more than a decade, Bob Prevost did vote in the 2024 presidential general election. But records of specifically who voters choose are not public, only the pope knows whether he voted for Republican Donald Trump, the American leader with whom he is now in a pointed and public disagreement.
Dietrich said if the pope or any other registered voter in Illinois takes a Republican ballot in the primary, they are not required to then vote that same way in November.
“It has nothing to do with how you vote in the general election, those two are completely separate. And the other thing is that just because you voted one party’s ballot a couple of weeks ago in 2026 doesn’t mean you have to take that same party’s ballots in the 2028 primary,” Dietrich said. “You can switch back and forth all you want. It will be recorded on your voting history. But you are never officially considered an official registered Democrat or Republican.”
NBC 5 Investigates was told that election records do not show Pope Leo voted in the Illinois primary a month ago. But if his voting pattern since 2012 holds true, the pope will request an Illinois absentee ballot for the midterm election in November and for the next presidential election in 2028.
