Why hold an election without voters?

What if they held an election and nobody came to vote? That’s precisely what’s likely to happen in at least a few congressional districts on Tuesday, at least if you’re a member of the Reform Party. In response to some targeted criticism, I wanted to take the opportunity to explain a bit about the history and the rationale for the six Reform Party primaries that are taking place in New York City on Tuesday.

There are now eight ballot-access parties in New York state. Those parties are automatically entitled to a place on the ballot for all elected offices, they can issue Wilson Pakulas (the authorization for one candidate to run on multiple ballot lines), form state and county committees and do all things that political parties do during an election cycle. To become a ballot-access party in New York state, you need to run a candidate for governor who receives 50,000 votes. In the last gubernatorial election, Republican candidate Rob Astorino circulated petitions to create a “Stop Common Core” party line, with a focus on making sure that education remained a local priority and not dictated by bureaucrats in Washington.

In the hopes of focusing on a broader reform agenda, Astorino and the other candidates who ran on that party’s line opted to rename the party “The Reform Party” and focus on a number of other initiatives, including term limits and eliminating pensions for lawmakers convicted of corruption. As a lifelong political independent, the agenda of this new party appealed to me, as did the opportunity to be at the ground floor of a new political party in this state, which could be used as a vehicle for real change and avoid so many of the mistakes I’d witnessed the Independence Party make when I was part of its leadership. So, last year, I registered in the new party.

As of now, there are roughly 400 members of the Reform Party statewide. Many others sought to switch their registration, but because of New York’s election laws, those who missed the deadline last November won’t be enrolled in the new party until next year. This year, we sought to have Opportunity To Ballot (OTB) write-in primaries in several congressional districts that didn’t have a Reform Party nominee. We also sought to have an OTB for U.S. Senate races, but fell just short of the required number of congressional districts. In many cases, this means opening the polls for an election in which only a few voters are eligible to cast a ballot. This has led some to criticize the cost to the taxpayer for the state to staff every polling site on Tuesday just to support the small number of Reform primary voters, and led at least one tabloid to refer to me as “a fringe party activist.”

So why have a Reform Party primary?

For starters, we’re doing this to illustrate the absurdity of New York having four separate election days this year (a presidential primary, a congressional primary, a state legislative primary and the general election). It’s nothing short of shameful that the state Legislature has refused to combine the congressional and state legislative primaries. What’s even more unfortunate is that most New Yorkers have no idea that these elections are separate. I’m hoping that having the polls open for 15 hours so that two people can vote will encourage New Yorkers to pick up their pitchforks and head to the district office of their local legislator and demand a stop to this idiocy. I’m also hoping that this forces the Legislature to consider alternative voting methods for the primary like voting by mail, as three other states do, and allowing smaller parties to nominate by convention rather than through a primary as they do in 17 states.

This is the only way rank-and-file members can choose their candidates. Because the democratically elected party leadership won’t be in place until this fall, this is the only opportunity that individual Reform Party members have to select their nominee.

Most people still don’t know the Reform Party exists. By holding these primaries, I’m hoping to enhance awareness among voters that there’s a new party in town, one that believes in democratic governance with a small “d.”

It forces the candidates to reach out to the membership. Why should a dozen people be the ones that get wined and dined by politicians? Candidates should have to go and make their case to Reform Party members as to why they should be selected.

Additionally, no one in the Reform Party prohibited the Republican or Democratic (or other ballot-access parties) from having a primary. I wish they would have. I don’t think we should be the only party offering voters a chance to select their party’s candidates. I’m also hopeful that the Reform Party will amend its rules to allow unaffiliated voters to vote in our primaries. If I’m fortunate enough to be elected to the State Committee in the fall, I plan to propose that very change.

In any event, I’m hopeful that we can do as many OTBs for the state Legislature in the fall primaries as possible. In an era when your state legislator is far more likely to be indicted than lose re-election, New Yorkers should understand that if they want political reform, they need to vote Reform.