So who won the Reform Party primary two weeks ago for our Congressional District?

First of all, I looked up the total number of Reform Party registered voters in NY-7. It’s 22. That means a total of one person could have signed the opportunity to ballot petition to reach the 5% threshold for triggering a write-in primary.

One!

Next up, how many votes were cast? Twenty-three. But two were not legible, so only 21 votes counted. (Remember, any voter not affiliated with a party could vote, meaning there were actually over 67,000 eligible voters for this primary.)

Finally, who won? Looks like Suraj Patel pulled off a big upset with four total votes. That’s the guy who was challenging Rep. Carolyn Maloney in NY-12. That’s right, he doesn’t live in the district, so he’s probably going to turn down the nomination. (Maloney, also not of the district, came in second place with two votes.)

There were 15 others who tied for third place with one vote apiece.

In East River Coops, a total of three votes were cast, for James Comey (former FBI Director), Dan Donovan (who was running in NY-11), and Zola Fazzolave (my new favorite made-up name).

Congratulations to everyone for a spectacular display of democracy gone awry!