Pope Leo Casts a Ballot in Chicago, a First for the Papacy

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

The Guardian adds a political context the Vatican statement does not: Leo has clashed with Donald Trump over several issues. Neither report says how the pope voted, and neither carries a Vatican comment beyond confirmation that the ballot was cast.

The novelty rests on the absence of precedent rather than on any documented rule. The Guardian describes the ballot as the first known instance of a pontiff voting, language that leaves open whether earlier cases went unrecorded. CBS, for its part, places the act plainly within a citizen's routine, noting only that the ballot was mailed before the midterms next week.