Key Points:

• Former lawmaker indicted for forging fraudulent nominating petition signatures

• Austin Smith withdrew candidacy after voter challenge, citing legal costs

• Smith was a known critic of election integrity

A state grand jury has indicted a former state representative for recording allegedly fraudulent nominating petition signatures.

Attorney General Kris Mayes announced on June 10 that the jury indicted former state Rep. Austin Smith on 14 counts related to his petition signatures, including forging the signatures of 10 voters. 

Smith did not return a request for comment from the Arizona Capitol Times.

Smith, from Wittmann, served one term in the House after being elected in 2022. He planned to run for re-election in the safely Republican Legislative District 29, but withdrew his candidacy in April 2024 after a voter challenged his nominating petition.

Shortly after he dropped out of the race, Smith said in a written statement that he wasn’t willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to defend the signatures on his petition, given his recent marriage, despite his confidence in emerging victorious from the election challenge. 

Smith was a former director of the conservative youth organization Turning Point Action and a member of the Arizona Freedom Caucus. During his time at the Legislature, he was one of the more vocal Republicans who criticized elections in the state and former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer. 

“Signature schmigmichture. Who cares, amirite?” Smith wrote in a 2024 post on X criticizing Richer. 

Smith set his X account to private shortly after Mayes announced his indictment. 

“Apparently the grand jury cares you lowlife. Felony charges, frauds, and snake oil salesmen.  That’s all you guys are,” Richer wrote on June 10, responding to Smith’s old post. 

The Associated Press reported Smith resigned from Turning Point Action after he withdrew his candidacy from the state House. According to Smith’s LinkedIn, which was also deleted shortly after the indictment announcement, he was rehired by Turning Point Action as a strategic director in January. 

The election challenge against Smith was filed by Jim Ashurst, a voter in LD29 and a board member of the LD29 Democratic precinct committee. 

Smith called Ashurst’s complaint “silly on its face” in his 2024 statement because he would have no reason to seek signatures from Democrats as a Republican. That complaint accused Smith of forging more than 100 signatures on his nominating petition and sought to disqualify him from public office for at least five years under state law. 

Smith collected 826 signatures on his nominating petition. The Secretary of State’s website states he needed 527 signatures from registered LD29 Republican voters to qualify for the ballot. 

Former Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman called for Smith to resign last year after the election challenge against him was filed. Hickman’s seat included LD29 in its representation. 

“This is a man who has lied to the people of Legislative District 29 and the entire state about our election operations for at least three years,” Hickman said. “An investigation will reveal the truth, but this episode tells us something about those who have spread falsehoods with such ease since the 2020 Election.”