PHOENIX — A Buckeye man pleaded guilty Monday to two counts in connection with forging signatures to qualify for the ballot, according to the Arizona Attorney General's Office.

Austin Cole Smith, 30, a former Arizona State Representative for District 29 from 2023 to 2025, was indicted in June for multiple felony counts involving forged candidate nomination petitions for his 2024 re-election campaign.

Smith filed the petitions with the Secretary of State in March 2024. Smith had signed the back of several of the petitions, indicating that he had circulated them.

As part of the guilty plea, Smith admitted to signing the name of a dead woman on one of the petitions, the Attorney General's Office said.

“Forging signatures, including those of people who have died, in order to get yourself o

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