Reform the Reform Party

Thanks to the state Legislature’s stubborn refusal to consolidate federal and state primaries, set for June and September respectively, New York taxpayers will waste $25 million this year — for the fourth straight time.

Now that Albany has given the finger to both voters and taxpayers, how about them lifting a finger to help tamp down another problem, in which tiny fringe parties force costly elections where there no contests, and make the public pay for it?

The culprit is the microscopic Reform Party, with 258 members in the city and 1,586 statewide.

Two years ago, taking advantage of an obscure provision in the law, a Reform activist pulled off what amounted to expensive performance art, requiring balloting in uncontested races and requiring meaningless primary contests for the party’s meaningless line in a slew of congressional districts.

Because the law triggering a primary is based on the portion of a party’s total enrollment and this particular party is so small, all that was needed to trigger the provision was a single signature on a petition. It was completely absurd, with primaries being held for two voters here and four voters there.

Here’s the fix: Since the Reform Party allows any person not enrolled in a party — 800,000 people in the city and 2.5 million statewide — to vote in their primaries, the city Board of Elections is asking Albany to change the petitioning requirement to reflect the total pool of potential primary voters.

The Reform pests can’t possibly clear that hurdle. The fix would save money, and headaches.