One month and 21 votes later, Babinec declared winner of June 27 Reform Party primary

Almost one month and a grand total of 21 votes later, Martin Babinec was finally declared the winner of the Reform Party Primary and is now legally, officially guaranteed a ballot line in November.

“What Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the Democratic Party did to Bernie Sanders is simply a disgrace – but it’s just a symptom of a much larger problem that I and so many other citizen candidates face. Elections are dominated by insiders with an agenda,” said Babinec. “Bernie and Donald are both right: the system is rigged against outsiders who want change and for career politicians who want to maintain the status quo. The status quo is broken.”

In the Congressional Primary held June 27, Babinec launched a successful opportunity to ballot (OTB) campaign on the Reform line, beating the endorsed candidate Claudia Tenney by 20-1. Incredibly, it took almost a month for the election to be certified.

“The system is set-up to discourage competition and the boards of election don’t have the resources or, in some cases, the professional management necessary to guarantee fair elections,” said Babinec. “The deck is stacked against a regular citizen, a working mother or father, a concerned citizen, or a frustrated small business owner who wants to run for elected. It’s time we modernized our elections with independent, non-partisan boards, that are adequately funded to ensure ballot access.”

Babinec, running as the endorsed Independent Party candidate and Reform Party candidate is also circulating petitions to form a new party, the Upstate Jobs Party. It was announced two weeks ago that the Upstate Jobs Party had already surpassed the 3,500 signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot in November.