To the Editor:

I know you are aware that the superdelegate provisions of the Democratic National Committee have been changed; however, more significantly, I believe is the fact that the rules of the nomination process adopted by the DNC require a switch from caucuses to primaries.

Paul Waldman of the Washington Post is quoted as calling that change a long-overdue move “away from one of the most awful and anti-democratic features” of the political process. The caucus system “needs to be destroyed … It’s anti-democratic because it can take hours — which is why turnout is always so much lower in caucuses than in primaries.” That means “vital choices are being made by a tiny portion of the population.”

I submit the caucus for the Guilderland town justice position recently insisted upon by the Guilderland Democratic bosses was an unjustified imposition upon the voters who must now vote in a primary for the selection of governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.

Why did they fight so hard to keep the majority of Democratic voters from being enfranchised? Why not combine the voting for town justice with the other offices on Primary Day, when people can go to a polling place any time during the hours of the day that the polls are open or use an absentee ballot, if they are disabled or away from home, in the military, or on vacation?

The answer is apparently as stated by Mr. Waldman, i.e. to insure that the choice for town justice would be made by a tiny portion of the town voters — the insiders, the cronies of the bosses, the others of the political gravy train.

On Thursday, Sept. 13, the voters of Guilderland who are enrolled in the Independence Party will have the opportunity to vote, in person or by absentee ballot, at various polling sites in the town, over the course of  many hours, in a primary election that will choose that party’s candidate, for Guilderland’s town justice — which is the way it should have been for the voters of the the Democratic Party.

Hopefully, the town bosses will be guided by the national rule change and by the comments made by Judge Glenn T. Suddaby in the conference call preceding his written decision (of which a transcript is available) and they will also put an end to the anti-democratic caucus system.

Eugene E. Napierski

Guilderland

Editor’s note: Eugene E. Napierski is the father and law partner of Christine Napierski who is running to keep her post as a town judge for Guilderland.