A state lawmaker with a history of leveling unfounded allegations of fraud against election workers has dropped his reelection bid amid allegations he forged signatures on his nomination petitions and submitted dozens of ineligible signatures.
The allegations against Rep. Austin Smith, a first-term Republican from Waddell, come from a complaint filed by two Democrats who live in his far northwest Valley district. The complaint has also triggered a civil referral from the Arizona secretary of state to the attorney general.
In a lengthy post on X, Smith portrayed the complaint as a “very intense effort to ‘get me'” because of his politics and concluded the cost of defending himself against the allegations would be prohibitive.
He also expressed concern that a judge would rule against him, although his social media post didn’t directly deny the allegations of petition forgery.
“The recommendation that I received most was that I should bow out and live to fight another day,” he wrote of his decision. “I might be confident of victory, but all it would take is a judge believing any one person and all would be lost.”