88- year- old election judge pleads guilty to voting as late husband

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — An 88- year- old Illinois election judge has pleaded guilty to casting a vote as her late husband.

Audrey Cook entered the plea to attempted violation of election code, a misdemeanor, on Thursday in exchange for prosecutors agreeing to drop a felony perjury charge under the code, The Telegraph reported.

The original perjury charge alleged that Cook forged the name of the late Virtus “Vic” Cook on an absentee ballot while serving as an election judge in Alton, 20 miles north of St. Louis. The misdemeanor charge stated that she took her husband’s mail ballot knowing he was deceased.

Cook pleaded guilty to an amended charge in which the words “to carry out the wishes of her husband” were added.

The longtime Republican acknowledged Thursday that she attempted to vote for Donald Trump on behalf of her husband in September because she knew he wanted Trump to become the president.

“Now they should investigate all the cemeteries in Chicago,” Cook said after being charged just days before the election. She said she doesn’t feel she did anything wrong because her husband would have voted the same if he survived.

“My husband was very sick, and we applied for absentee ballots for both of us,” she said. “We got them a couple of days after he died, and I knew how he wanted to vote.”

Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons said Cook will be removed as an election judge.