Mayor Eric Adams brushed off on Friday a report that his mayoral reelection campaign submitted dozens of forged or fraudulent signatures to secure his place as an independent candidate on the November general election ballot.
Following an unrelated Aug. 1 event in Brooklyn, Hizzoner insisted to reporters that it is completely normal for campaigns to submit some fraudulent signatures gathered by volunteers or hired canvassers on the street. He made the statements in response to a Gothamist report that found at least 52 of the nearly 50,000 signatures his campaign submitted to get on the ballot were forged or fraudulent.
Adams said that “everyone” who knows about petitioning is “well aware” that when gathering signatures, a candidate’s opponents will try to play “tricks,” such as getting people to write a dead person’s name on their ballots. He said that is why his campaign gathered and filed close to 50,000 signatures, rather than the minimum required 7,500.
“When you’re out in the street with volunteers, they sign the signatures, we know that those things happen because of the number of volunteers you have,” Adams said. “We have more than enough to get on the ballot. That is why anyone that’s in this game, in this business, will tell you when you’re doing what’s called street petitioning, people sign, you have your opponents that come and do things to try to mess up your signatures. This is part of the business.”
The mayor added that his campaign has enlisted an “independent person” to review the signatures it gathered in response to the report.
Veteran election lawyer Sarah Steiner, however, cast doubt on Adams’ explanation in a text message to amNewYork.
“If you collect signatures on the street, they may or may not be valid, but they are real,” she said.
Steiner added that the number of fraudulent signatures the Gothamist report found was “unusual in a sample that size.”
However, an official with the city Board of Elections (BOE) said that Gothamist’s findings likely will not impact Adams’ ballot placement, because it is an “allegation” made beyond the period when his spot could be challenged. The official added that it is not the BOE’s responsibility to assess the authenticity of signatures, but rather just to certify that the campaign turned in the correct number.
Nevertheless, the BOE official told amNewYork, Adams could face legal consequences if one of the city’s district attorneys suspects criminality and decides to pursue an investigation.
Gothamist’s report found that the signatures, gathered by employees of private companies hired by the campaign, were forged outright in some cases. In other instances, the news site reported, voters felt they were deceived into signing the forms, and in at least three cases, the campaign filed dead people’s signatures.
They also reported that Adams’ campaign declined to hire outside auditors to vet many of the signatures private companies collected for them, even after one of the firms’ executives recommended they do so.
The revelation comes as Adams is locked in an uphill reelection battle against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist Queens Assembly member. He is also facing off against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, and attorney Jim Walden.
Cuomo and Walden are running as independents as well.
Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec responded to the report in a statement saying: “It’s no wonder New Yorkers are losing faith in our democracy when for this mayor, the law is merely a suggestion.”
“It’s time to turn the page on the never-ending corruption nightmare of Adams and Cuomo and elect Zohran Mamdani — who will make this city more affordable and bring integrity back to City Hall,” said Pekec, blasting Cuomo as well.
Adams filed for an independent general election bid after opting out of the Democratic primary due to his since-dismissed federal corruption case. The charges, in part, concerned allegations of Adams’ 2021 campaign soliciting and accepting illicit foreign donations through straw donors in exchange for official favors.
The judge who dismissed the case did so at the behest of President Trump’s Justice Department without ruling on its merits. Adams has maintained that he did nothing wrong and that his campaign “follows the law.”
