Pope Leo XIV has become the first pope to vote in a United States election, the Vatican said on Friday, confirming that he had sent in a mail-in ballot from his home state of Illinois ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.

The Holy See press office said the pope, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so,” CBS News reported. The Vatican said that, “in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation,” he had “submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago,” the city where he was born, according to Al Jazeera.

“The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,” the statement said.

The vote first came to light on Thursday in the Chicago Sun-Times, which quoted Kim Fladhammer, the chief of staff at 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,” Ms. Fladhammer told the paper. He made the request on Oct. 3.

The clerk’s office confirmed to CBS News that his registered address is in New Lenox, a Will County suburb, not in the city of Chicago the Vatican named.

His request went in days before surgery on his lung. Leo left the hospital on Oct. 17 and has been taking up his duties again at the Vatican. He is going ahead with a trip to South America next month.

The Vatican didn’t say how the ballot made its way back to Illinois. It was not clear whether the clerk’s office had received it.

The ballot he filled out includes the race for the U.S. Senate seat held by Dick Durbin, who is retiring, and Gov. JB Pritzker’s bid for re-election, along with Will County judicial and county contests.

Leo has a long voting record in Illinois. Records from the Illinois State Board of Elections show him registered, as Robert Prevost, in Cook County, according to CBS News. The Associated Press, citing state records, reported that he had voted in every general election since 2000 except those in 2020 and 2022.

His primary record crosses party lines. He took Republican ballots in 2012, 2014 and 2016. The Sun-Times put his Democratic primary ballots in 2008 and 2010, while CBS News, citing the AP, gave the years as 2008 and 2019. Illinois voters don’t register by party. They pick a party’s ballot when they vote in a primary, and no such choice is needed in a general election. He skipped the state’s primary this March, the Sun-Times reported.

He voted abroad, too. The Vatican said that during nearly two decades in Peru, first as a missionary and then as a bishop, he cast a ballot whenever he was eligible. He holds both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship.

In September, the pope told a general audience in St. Peter’s Square that the faithful should leave behind “all passivity and indifference” toward current events.

“We cannot remain as unengaged spectators; rather, we must listen with our hearts, allow ourselves to be challenged, and become involved,” he said on Sept. 2, according to the Catholic News Service.