This week's idiot is another Republican politician who propagated Trump's lies about election integrity pled guilty for committing fraud with fake signatures on a ballot to qualify for an election.
Photo: Former Arizona state Rep. Austin Smith Who questioned election integrity, pled guilty for using forged signatures. By Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
Ex-Arizona lawmaker who questioned election integrity to be sentenced for using forged signatures
PHOENIX (AP) — A former Republican lawmaker who questioned the integrity of Arizona’s elections and served as a leader for the conservative group Turning Point Action is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for using nominating petitions that contained forged signatures in a bid to qualify for a 2024 primary election.
Austin Smith, 30, pleaded guilty in mid-November to charges of attempted fraudulent schemes and practices, and illegal signing of election petitions. He had acknowledged trying to use petitions with forged signatures that he knew were false and forging a dead woman’s signature on a nominating petition.
Smith represented an Arizona House district in the Phoenix suburbs for one term before dropping his reelection bid in April 2024 when questions arose about signatures on his nominating petitions.
He resigned at the time as a leader at Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of Turning Point USA, which has become a major force in Arizona Republican politics. His bio page said Smith was approached in 2019 by Turning Point co-founder Charlie Kirk and Tyler Bowyer, another top leader for the group, about launching Turning Point Action.
His plea deal calls for him to be sentenced to probation, pay a $5,000 fine and be barred from running for public office for five years.
He previously portrayed the allegations against him as a coordinated attack by Democrats that was “silly on its face,” but said he would drop out of his reelection campaign to avoid racking up legal bills. In campaign literature, Smith voiced support for a Republican-backed review of the 2020 presidential election results in Maricopa County that ultimately ended without producing proof to support President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. Smith also sponsored an unsuccessful proposal to ban voting by mail and complained in a campaign ad about political elites breaking election laws.
This week's idiot is another Trump-related lawbreaking criminal jerk, and Karma arrived. Her bogus claims also sparked death threats against Colorado County Clerks Association director Matt Crane and his family. She refused to apologize or admit her actions were criminal and hurtful to others. This scum, like the others around the country who also tried the same thing, deserve to rot in prison. America is better than them. Here's the story.
ARIZONA ELECTION-DENYING CLERK GETS 9 YEARS IN PRISON
A judge called a Colorado county clerk a "charlatan" over her crimes and lies before sentencing her to nine years. Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was a one-time hero to election deniers
ARIZONA (AP) - A judge ripped into a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — after earlier sparring with her for continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines — that she never took her job seriously.
“I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,” Barrett told her in handing down the sentence. “You are no hero. You abused your position and you’re a charlatan.”
Jurors found Peters guilty in August for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access to the Mesa County election system and for being deceptive about that person’s identity.
The man was affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from former President Donald Trump. The discredited claims trace back to Trump himself, whose supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol because of them and who still hints at them in his third run for president.
At trial, prosecutors said Peters, a Republican, was seeking fame and became “fixated” on voting problems after becoming involved with those who had questioned the accuracy of the presidential election results.
A one-time hero to election deniers, Peters has been unapologetic about what happened.
Before being sentenced, Peters insisted that everything she did to try to unroot what she believed was fraud was for the greater good.
“I’ve never done anything with malice to break the law. I’ve only wanted to serve the people of Mesa County,” she told the court.
When Peters pressed on with claims no legal authority has corroborated about “wireless devices” and fraud software in voting machines, however, she drew the judge’s exasperation. Ballot recounts showed no discrepancies, he pointed out.
“I’ve let you go on enough about this,” Judge Barrett said. “The votes are the votes.”
Later, the judge noted that Peters has kept up public appearances in broadcasts to sympathetic audiences for her own benefit.
“It’s just more lies. No objective person believes them. No, at the end of the day, you cared about the jets, the podcasts and people fawning over you,” Barrett said.
Peters had the right to be defiant, he noted, but it was “certainly not helpful for her lot today.”
The breach led by Peters heightened concerns that rogue election workers sympathetic to partisan lies could use their access and knowledge to attack voting processes from within.
It’s impossible to overestimate the damage Peters has done to other election workers in Colorado and elsewhere, Colorado County Clerks Association director Matt Crane told the court.
“In a real and specific way, her actions have led directly to death threats and general threats to the lives and the families of the people who work in our elections,” Crane said. “She has willingly aided individuals in our country who believe that violence is a way to make a point. She has knowingly fueled a fire within others who choose threats as a means to get their way.”
He, his wife and his children have been among those threatened, Crane said.
In Mesa County — a scenic, mostly rural area on the Colorado Western Slope known for its peaches, vineyards and mountain biking as well as oil and gas drilling — Peters’ actions have cost the local government $1.4 million in legal fees and lost employee time, County Commissioner Cody Davis estimated at the sentencing hearing.
Also Peters’ notoriety has incurred “unseen costs” for the area, Davis told the court. “We have a lot of pride in this community but our reputation has taken a hit,” Davis said. “Her behavior has made this county a national laughingstock.”
Peters was convicted of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.
She was found not guilty of identity theft, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and one count of criminal impersonation. Yet she persisted on social media to accuse Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems, which made her county’s election system, and others of stealing votes.
This week's idiot is Shelby Busch, a Top politician in Arizona's Maricopa County, who called for lynching the election official who is responsible for certifying votes and because the last election didn't go for Trump, she clearly said she would murder him by hanging. This woman, who claims to be a Christian, wants to murder an innocent man for doing his job, when the outcome doesn't suit her insanity.
Top Maricopa County GOP Official Said She’d ‘Lynch’ Election Official
PHOENIX (AZFamily)— A new viral video shows Shelby Busch, one of the leaders of the Maricopa County GOP, saying she’d lynch Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer.
It’s not the first time Richer has faced threats or verbal insults from his own party. Over the past two years, Richer has received numerous death threats related to the last election.
Since the 2022 election, several men have been sentenced or indicted for threatening the county’s top election official. Richer said that kind of language has no place in politics
“If lynching is in your vocabulary you need to have a heart to heart with yourself,” Richer said. “That shouldn’t be in your vocabulary given the history of that term and it shouldn’t be on your vocabulary to say about anyone you with whom you disagree.”
We contacted the state GOP for comment but haven’t heard back.
Given the history of verbal abuse and threats he’s received from his party, Richer also said he was not going to vote this year for Donald Trump, Who has accused Richer of wrongdoing and pushed unsubstantiated claims that the elections have been rigged.
Richer’s comments followed the final debate before early voting starts next week.
Current state lawmaker Justin Heap and information technology management expert Don Hiatt are also running for county recorder. Unlike his opponents, Richer was the only candidate on stage who stated that the 2020 and 2022 elections were not stolen.
Busch responded to a request for comment from Arizona’s Family. She said: “Everyone knows I don’t like Richer. The statement was a joke and was said in jest. I do not condone and would never condone violence against anyone.”
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix and the ADL Desert also released a statement saying that they are appalled by these vile comments against Richer, who is Jewish.
“We urge Ms. Busch to retract and apologize, and the Maricopa County Republican Party to stand against such rhetoric,” the groups said.
I'm a simple guy who enjoys the simple things in life, especially our dogs. I volunteer for dog rescues, enjoy exercising, blogging, politics, helping friends and neighbors, participating in ghost investigations, coffee, weather, superheroes, comic books, mystery novels, traveling, 70s and 80s music, classic country music,writing books on ghosts and spirits, cooking simply and keeping in shape. You'll find tidbits of all of these things on this blog and more. EMAIL me at Rgutro@gmail.com - Rob
