This is the On the Media Midweek podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone. Here in New York, we're not due to select our next mayor until November, but somehow it feels like we're already embroiled in pre-election chaos. What with all the recent Zohan Mamdani news, and the former Governor Andrew Cuomo news,

not to mention all the headlines generated by our current mayor, Eric Adams,

who by all appearances made a deal with Donald Trump to avoid his own corruption charges,

Adams is now running as an independent.

And to do so, he'll be required to present the signatures of 7,500 New Yorkers who support him.

He actually handed in around 50,000 names, so he more than made the cutoff.

But when our colleagues in the WNYC Newsroom began to look at those signatures,

they stumbled onto a scandal.

For the pod this week, we're airing an episode of a daily podcast produced in our

newsroom called NYC Now.

The episode, hosted by Christopher Wirth, begins with WNYC reporter David Brand as he goes

door-to-door in the Bronx talking to voters about ballot petitions.

Hi.

Hi.

Sorry to bother you.

My name is David Brand.

I'm a reporter from a public radio station called WNYC.

To get onto the ballot in November, Mayor Eric Adams and other candidates for office have to submit petitions with signatures from New York City residents.

And a colleagues and I started talking to people who their names and signatures were submitted.

And so here is Jamela Brooks and wondering that's you and if it is you is that your signature?

That is me, but that is not my signature. I do not sign like that.

A WNYC investigation has found dozens of people who say their signatures were forged on

...