Does a viral image prove that the newly elected U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV is a "registered Republican" from Will County, Illinois? That omits some context: According to the Will County Clerk's Office file, the new Pope did vote in Republican primaries in the past, but that doesn't make him a "registered Republican" because Illinois does not require eligible voters to declare their party affiliation to be able to vote. When asked about the viral image, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections told Lead Stories that it did not originate from the Will County Clerk's Office or the Illinois State Board of Elections.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X published on May 8, 2025. It opened:
🚨BREAKING: The new Pope is registered Republican
Are we back?
The entry shared an image that looked like it could have been a screenshot of a person's voting record. It read:
County WILL
Precinct NEW LENOX 13
Robert F Prevost
Birthdate 9/14/1955, 69 Years
Party Republican
Registration 8/15/2023
Vote Frequency 2
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost (archived here), who became Pope Leo XIV (archived here) on May 8, 2025, is a U.S.-born native of Chicago, Illinois.
According to the data provided by the Will County Clerk's Office, the new Pope voted three times in Republican primaries since 2012, but he is still listed as "undeclared":
(Source: Will County Clerk's Office)
(Source: Will County Clerk's Office)
Unlike some other states, Illinois has partially open primaries (archived here). In practice, that means that people don't register as Republicans, Democrats or Independents to be able to vote. They have to declare a party preference in order to request a primary ballot for a specific political party (archived here), but that can be changed from year to year.
Public Information Officer for the Illinois State Board of Elections Matt Dietrich told Lead Stories via email on May 8, 2025:
In Illinois, a voter never officially declares a party affiliation. However, when you vote in a primary election in Illinois, you must request the ballot of one of the parties fielding candidates. Your selection becomes part of your voting record, and anyone looking at your voting history can see that you voted in the primary and which party's ballot you pulled.
Lead Stories checked voter registration forms associated with the new Pope's birth name on the websites of Will County and the Illinois State Board of Elections but those pages do not match the viral "screenshot" and did not display the Pope's party affiliation.
When asked specifically about the viral image in a follow-up email on the same day, Dietrich said:
That image is not from the Will County Clerk's Office or the Illinois State Board of Elections.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks concerning current events are here.
