{"id":812,"date":"2026-10-30T19:58:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T19:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=812"},"modified":"2026-10-30T19:58:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T19:58:57","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-first-pope-to-vote-us-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=812","title":{"rendered":"THE POPE JUST MAILED IN HIS BALLOT! | Chicago&#8217;s own Leo XIV becomes the first pontiff ever to vote in a US election, and Trump has already said he&#8217;s no fan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HOLY SMOKE, IT&#8217;S A MAIL-IN BALLOT! Pope Leo XIV has submitted his mail-in ballot in Illinois for the midterm elections, becoming the first pope ever to vote in a US election, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/ckwyq2509p7xo\">BBC<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,&#8221; the Holy See Press Office said. The Chicago-born pontiff, chosen in May 2025, is the first US citizen to hold the job, and the Vatican says he has voted as an American &#8220;whenever he was eligible to do so,&#8221; including during his years in Peru.<\/p>\n<p>According to NBC News, he requested his ballot from the Will County Clerk&#8217;s Office on <strong>3 October<\/strong>. Less than two weeks later, the Vatican announced he&#8217;d had surgery to remove a lower lobe of his right lung after a lung cancer diagnosis. The 71-year-old is still set to travel to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru in early November.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t expect a fan letter from the White House. After the Pope called for peace following US-Israeli strikes on Iran in April, President Trump said: &#8220;I&#8217;m not a big fan of Pope Leo.&#8221; The Pope&#8217;s reply: &#8220;If someone wants to criticise me for preaching the Gospel&#8230; I hope simply to be listened to because of the value of God&#8217;s words.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Elections are on <strong>3 November<\/strong>. Polls suggest Democrats are favoured to take the House. Who the Pope voted for? The Vatican isn&#8217;t saying.<\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/ckwyq2509p7xo\">BBC News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago&#8217;s own Leo XIV becomes the first pontiff ever to vote in a US election, and Trump has already said he&#8217;s no fan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bb-pope-mail-ballot-1030.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}