Every Accusation a Confession

Former MAGAt Arizona state legislator Austin Smith just pled guilty to election fraud for forging signatures on his election petitions.

Gee, why am I not surprised?

Former Republican state legislator Austin Smith pleaded guilty Monday to what he previously called “ludicrous” charges that he personally forged more than 100 signatures on his petitions for reelection last year.

The Republican from Surprise was a member of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus, which has a history of spreading false claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election and pushed for election law changes in the state legislature.

“As a part of his guilty plea today, Smith admitted signing the name of a deceased woman on one of his candidate nomination petitions in March of 2024,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement. “He also admitted that he attempted to deceive the Secretary of State’s Office by knowingly filing petitions containing forged signatures of purported supporters of his nomination for the Republican primary for State Representative from LD 29.”

Seriously, how hard is it to get legitimate signatures for a nomination petition?  You would have to be a completely unlikable bastard to ……… Oh.  Yeah.  Right.

Smith pleaded guilty to one count of attempted fraudulent schemes and practices, an undesignated offense, and to one count of illegal signing of an election petition, a misdemeanor.

At the time he was indicted, Smith was strategic director of Turning Point Action, Turning Point USA’s advocacy arm. TPUSA is a far-right organization based in Phoenix that aims to mobilize young conservatives founded by Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed in September while speaking to a group of college students in Utah.

A Maricopa County grand jury indicted Smith on June 2 on four felony counts for presenting documents he knew were forged to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office and 10 misdemeanor counts for personally forging the names of electors on his reelection petitions.

Smith pleaded guilty to the reduced charges as part of a plea agreement that gives him the possibility of avoiding a felony conviction. In Arizona law, when a person without a criminal history is found guilty of a low-level felony, the judge can wait until that person’s probation is finished before designating the crime a felony or misdemeanor. Essentially, that means if Smith completes any probation he’s sentenced to without violations, his conviction could be classified a misdemeanor instead of a felony.

And that’s important, because felons in Arizona can’t vote or hold elected office unless their rights are restored by a judge.

If the judge has any sense, he won't reclassify.  This man is an affront to democracy, decency, and the Constitution of the United States of America.