Pope Leo Votes by Post in Chicago, a First for a Pontiff

Pope Leo has voted in the United States midterm elections, the first time a sitting pontiff is known to have cast a ballot in any political election at any point in history, the Guardian reported on Friday. According to CBS News, the Vatican said Leo had exercised his right as a US citizen, submitting a mail-in ballot in his native Chicago ahead of the midterms next week.

Both accounts place the ballot in Illinois rather than in Rome, and both date it to the days before voting closes. The Guardian notes that Leo has clashed with Donald Trump over several issues; the item does not list them, and neither report ties the vote to a particular contest, candidate or party.

The novelty lies in the citizenship as much as in the act. The pope is head of state of Vatican City, an enclave inside Rome, and the Holy See has conventionally held itself apart from electoral politics. The reports present the ballot as a private exercise of a national right rather than as an intervention in an American campaign.