To the Editor:

I wish to express my sincere admiration and appreciation to all the citizens that came to the Guilderland Democratic caucus at Tawasentha Park on July 26. People waited over an hour in a hot, overcrowded picnic pavilion to cast their vote. Many had to stand and many could not even hear what was going on. The determination shown by Guilderland citizens to be a part of our democratic process was impressive and worthy of praise.

Unfortunately, many were not able to attend. This is partly due to lack of notice. The caucus is not advertised and many people today don’t even know we have a caucus in Guilderland.

It also due to factors in our lives that make it impossible for some of us to attend a caucus but these barriers can be easily removed if we had a primary election like other political parties.

To the man working two jobs who could not get there at the appointed time, to the elderly couple that could not come out in the heat, to the woman who had knee surgery and went to the caucus to vote but could not stay because she was in pain, to all those with living with disabilities and to the men and women serving in our military who could not cast an absentee ballot, reforms are needed so you can also exercise your right to vote!

This week the Democratic National Committee enacted historic reforms to change the caucus system at the national level. These reforms are a recognition that a caucus system suppresses the vote by making it difficult for people to exercise their right to vote.

This is why we, my father and I, had to go to court to seek relief to make the caucus more accessible and fair. We all need to call upon our local Guilderland Democratic Committee and the Albany County Democratic Committee (which supervises the GDC) to follow the national lead and change the rules to allow for a primary election in Guilderland so that all 9,000-plus Democrats in the town of Guilderland can exercise their Constitutional right and participate in choosing our candidates for our town Government.

The rules can be changed by a two-thirds vote of the committee. We need to let our local Guilderland Democratic Committee and Albany County Committee know how we feel. We can make a difference and make a change for the better.

Christine M. Napierski

Guilderland