Elect for a real election

The people of Harlem have a new (and old) councilman, with Bill Perkins being sworn in for the job Wednesday, having won the nine-candidate Valentine’s Day special election to fill a vacant seat. Perkins, an incumbent state senator who held the same Council seat until term limits kicked in, bested eight rivals, as the contenders engaged in 10 debates or forums during an intense six-week campaign.

That was democracy as intended: open and competitive. As for filling Perkins’ freshly opened seat in Albany, the folks who run things up there — where vacancies are filled through a closed, bossdominated system — can learn a thing or two from their Big Apple cousin.

Gov. Cuomo is saying that he intends to schedule a special election to fill Perkins’ Albany post. Big mistake, governor. An Albany special election isn’t special or even a real election.

Under the rigged rules — yes, here the term really applies — Democratic and Republican Party insiders each pick one candidate. Those names will appear on the May 23 ballot, but it’s a formality; in overwhelmingly Democratic districts, the Dem always wins. Meaning, the party, not the people, decide. Making the farce even more unfair, the sure winner wouldn’t be crowned until after the Senate’s 11-day Memorial Day recess. Which means by the time he or she took the oath, there’d only be 11 days left in the six-month legislative session.

Yet that fraudulently chosen incumbent would get to serve an entire additional session, straight through to the end of 2018 .

Better for Cuomo to do nothing and let the Senate seat be filled through a normal competitive primary in September, then a general election in November. It’s democratic with a small “d” — and fair with a capital “F.”