Ex-Arizona lawmaker admits forging petition signatures
Former Arizona Republican state representative Austin Smith, a onetime leader of Turning Point Action who questioned the integrity of the 2020 election, is set to be sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty in November 2025 to using forged signatures on his 2024 reelection nominating petitions, including signing a dead woman’s name. Under a plea agreement, the 30-year-old will receive probation, pay a $5,000 fine, and be barred from running for public office for five years after admitting he knowingly submitted falsified petitions even as he publicly backed efforts to restrict voting and ban mail ballots.
📌 Key Facts
- Austin Smith, 30, pleaded guilty in mid-November to attempted fraudulent schemes and practices and illegal signing of election petitions.
- Prosecutors say he knowingly submitted nominating petitions with forged signatures and personally forged a deceased woman's signature while seeking to qualify for a 2024 primary.
- His plea deal calls for probation, a $5,000 fine, and a five-year prohibition on running for public office.
- Smith dropped his reelection bid and resigned his leadership role at Turning Point Action in April 2024 after questions arose about his petition signatures.
- As a lawmaker, Smith backed a Republican-led review of Maricopa County’s 2020 presidential results, sponsored a failed bill to ban mail voting, and campaigned against 'elites' who break election laws.
📊 Relevant Data
Between 1982 and 2024, The Heritage Foundation's database documents approximately 1,500 proven instances of voter fraud across the United States, a tiny fraction compared to the billions of votes cast in that period.
Heritage Database | Election Fraud Map | The Heritage Foundation — The Heritage Foundation
Arizona's non-Hispanic White population share decreased from 57.8% in 2010 to 53.4% in 2020, while the Hispanic/Latino share increased from 29.6% to 31.7%, with the Hispanic/Latino population growing by over 485,000 from 2010 to 2022.
In Arizona, Latino and Native American voters are at far higher risk of being removed from the Active Early Voting List (which enables mail voting) compared to White voters, with Latinos 2.5 times more likely and Native Americans 3.5 times more likely to be removed under policies like Senate Bill 1485.
Nonwhite Voters at Higher Risk of Being Dropped from Arizona’s Mail Ballot List — Brennan Center for Justice
Instances of forged signatures on election petitions have been documented in several states, including a 2022 scandal in Michigan where multiple Republican gubernatorial candidates were disqualified for submitting thousands of invalid signatures, highlighting vulnerabilities in paid signature-gathering processes.
There's a fraud problem with signature-gathering for elections — WPSU