Will Eliot Spitzer even get on the ballot?

After Spitzer appeared Monday afternoon at his petition drive with no staffers in tow — and few volunteers canvassing the area — questions remain about whether his hurried campaign will be able to collect the 3,750 signatures from registered Democrats required to qualify for the ballot by the midnight deadline this Thursday.

Although Spitzer’s first public appearance Monday was billed as a signature drive, that was not at all the focus of the hour-long event: Only two volunteers appeared to be collecting signatures near the candidate’s press gaggle, though a campaign spokesperson later called BuzzFeed to say that eight had in fact been at the event. Spitzer himself spent the afternoon talking to reporters, speaking individually to only seven or so voters — and leaving in a taxi with about that many signatures on his own petition sheet.

When asked how many signatures the campaign had managed to collect so far, campaign spokeswoman Lisa Linden declined to give specifics. …

Spitzer told The New York Times Sunday evening that he expected to have some 100 signature gatherers starting Monday. But a source close the campaign Tuesday called the estimate “wishful thinking” and “a high number.” Linden, for her part, said she wasn’t sure of “the exact number,” but said the campaign had “people out there gathering signatures, for sure.”