{"id":49630,"date":"2026-10-31T16:21:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T14:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=49630"},"modified":"2026-10-31T16:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T14:21:36","slug":"pope-leo-becomes-first-pontiff-to-cast-ballot-in-us-election","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/pope-leo-becomes-first-pontiff-to-cast-ballot-in-us-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo becomes first pontiff to cast ballot in US election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pope Leo the 14th has become the first pontiff to vote in a United States (US) general election, submitting a postal ballot ahead of Tuesday\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n<p>The Vatican confirmed the Chicago-born Pope had voted, describing participation in democratic processes as both a right and a duty.<\/p>\n<p>His vote comes after public disagreements with President Donald Trump over immigration and the war in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>The Vatican has not disclosed which candidates the Pope supported. Born Robert Francis Prevost, he remains an American citizen and is registered to vote in New Lenox, Illinois.<\/p>\n<p>His position as Vatican head of state does not automatically remove his American citizenship or voting rights.<\/p>\n<p>The confirmation comes as President Donald Trump campaigns to preserve Republican control of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Leo has criticised the Iran war and the treatment of migrants, but his voting history includes participation in both Republican and Democratic primaries.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Sherwin Bryce-Pease\/SABC&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32392,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-49630","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Vatican has not disclosed which candidates the Pope supported. ","published_date":"","news_description":"The Vatican has not disclosed which candidates the Pope supported. ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49632,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49630\/revisions\/49632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=49630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}