The re-election campaign for New York City Mayor Eric Adams submitted fraudulent and fake signatures on the legal petition for him to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate according to a report from Gothamist released on Friday.
The news outlet conducted a review of the campaign’s petition and found multiple people who said their names were added without their permission or knowledge and at least three instances of signatures belonging to deceased individuals, for a total of 52 signatures that were forged or otherwise fraudulently obtained with thousands yet to be verified.
The review found that many pages of the petition had signatures written in very similar handwriting and that in at least one case, a single campaign worker had collected over 700 signatures on one day.
One Bronx resident, Jahmela Brooks, told Gothamist that she was not even in the country on the date that her name was added to the petition.
“This is shocking. It’s tough to even put it into words,” Brooks said while looking at what she said was a forged signature. “I’m beyond angry.”
Manhattan resident Leila Lieberman told the news outlet that her son’s name appeared on the petition, with her apartment listed as his address, even though he took his own life in 1997.
“I’m sure that they [politicians] do things to get on the ballot, to get elected, but that is something they shouldn’t have done,” Lieberman said.
“Every now and again, somebody tries to cut corners and they’re generally caught and sometimes those cases are referred to the district attorney or the U.S. attorney, and there are prosecutions,” said attorney Jerry Goldfeder, the chair of the American Bar Association’s Election Law Committee.
A spokesperson for the Adams campaign said in a statement that the mayor did not order anyone to break the law and said the campaign is going to “determine whether any corrective action is warranted.”
Adams quickly came under fire after the Gothamist released its report.
New York attorney Sarena Townsend wrote on social media: “Whatever you’re thinking when reading the headline… it’s 100 times worse. This article was shocking, even for me. Adams simply has never been able to get through life or win any accomplishments without cheating his way there.”
Retired New York Police Department (NYPD) Lt. John Macari Jr. added: “Laws are a mere suggestion at this point for [Eric Adams]. Don’t worry though nothing will happen.”
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