Mayor Eric Adams downplayed the discovery of forged and fraudulently obtained signatures on petitions his campaign submitted to get on the ballot for re-election, saying on Friday that “this is part of the business.”
Adams spoke hours after Gothamist published an investigation that raised questions about how signatures were collected in his effort to get enough support to run for re-election as an independent.
“Everyone that knows about petitioning is well aware that you even have some of your opponents who come and do tricks, you know, to try to sabotage your campaign. They would put dead people’s names on. They would do all of these tricks. Everyone knows that,” Adams said, per the outlet.
Gothamist’s investigation found the supposed signatures of at least three dead people on Adams’ petitions. More than 50 people said their signatures were forged or that they were misled into signing a petition they did not know was for Adams. The campaign said it’s now conducting a review of the nearly 50,000 signatures Adams gathered to run on either the “EndAntisemitism” or “Safe&Affordable” ballot lines.
Adams said his campaign intentionally gathered well in excess of the required 7,500 signatures to get on the ballot.
“You know that when you’re out on the street with volunteers. They sign the signatures, you know those things happen because of the number of volunteers you have,” Adams said.
“This is part of the business. That’s why you get more than enough.”
He suggested that an examination of other campaigns’ petitions would uncover similar issues.
Gothamist reports that one of Adams’ opponents in the upcoming general election, Democratic Party nominee Zohran Mamdani, emphasized that his campaign had relied on volunteers to gather signatures for the primary.
“We cannot ask ourselves why New Yorkers are losing faith in democracy when the very New Yorkers are being shown forgeries of their own signatures in an attempt to get the mayor back on the ballot. It is a betrayal of trust and an example of the very kind of politics that New Yorkers are eager to move beyond,” Mamdani said Friday.
Last week, Gothamist reviewed signatures submitted across New York City and identified at least 52 cases where residents said their names were faked—or where signatures were deceptively obtained. Some signers were confirmed to be deceased, including one man who died nearly 20 years ago.
Under New York state law, Adams needed 7,500 valid voter signatures to appear on the ballot as an independent, a move that allowed him to avoid a potentially damaging Democratic primary. He ultimately turned in nearly 50,000 signatures.
But Gothamist reports that many of them came from high-rise buildings, including NYCHA complexes, where residents say they never signed—or were tricked into it.
Peter Koch, a 75-year-old Queens resident at the Pomonok Houses, said this is a true sign of how to choose.
“I don’t care who the person is, I’m not going to sign any petitions… If this is for Mayor Adams, it’s telling you who not to vote for.”
Others like Mercedes Dabulis, a Bronx nurse, scoffed at her supposed signature.
“It looks like fraud,” she told Gothamist.
Gothamist alleges that Adams’ campaign hired multiple firms to gather signatures, including an out-of-state company called Public Appeal, which was paid $175,000. That company was led by the Pool brothers, one of whom has pending assault charges in New York.
One of their workers, Phillip Harris, submitted nearly 2,000 signatures—many of which were on forms visibly creased right below Adams’ name, a tactic previously flagged as deceptive. Harris denied folding petitions to obscure Adams’ name but admitted that “a lot of people won’t say [Adams’] name” when canvassing.
Despite the mounting concerns, Gothamist reports that ballot petitions rarely undergo scrutiny. The deadline to challenge signatures passed on June 10, and officials only verify that the required number was submitted—not their authenticity,
Let’s be real—Mayor Adams running as an independent after dodging federal bribery charges and cozying up to Trump was already enough drama. But fake signatures from dead people and residents who never even signed? That’s a plot twist nobody asked for.
While the Board of Elections likely won’t boot him from the ballot, New Yorkers might want to look at those creased petitions and ask themselves: If this is how you get on the ballot… how do you plan to lead?
