Election judge pleads not guilty in absentee ballot case

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) - An 88-year-old election judge from southern Illinois has pleaded not guilty after allegedly sending in an absentee ballot in her late husband's name.

The (Belleville) News-Democrat reports (http://bit.ly/2f9xXND ) that Audrey Cook appeared Thursday in Madison County Circuit Court.

Cook, of Alton, told The Associated Press this month that she filled out the ballot for her husband after he died in September because she knew he would want Donald Trump to be president.

She was charged a few days before the Nov. 8 election with two felony counts of election fraud.

Madison County State's Attorney Tom Gibbons has said the ballot was never even opened because a clerk found it had been submitted in the name of a deceased person.

Gibbons also said Cook would be removed as an election judge.