To the Editor:

One night after our town supervisor [Vasilios Lefkaditis] had his Democratic candidate nominated for the open Knox Town Council seat at the local Republican caucus, he attempted to also put the same candidate’s name on the Democratic line during the town’s Democratic caucus. If it had been successful, that strategy would have limited the choice for voters.

Ironically, he is now accusing the Democrats of limiting voter choices. The Town of Knox Democratic Committee decided to provide secret ballots at this year’s caucus because voters said they felt intimidated when Mr. Lefkaditis’s father-in-law videotaped last year’s show of hands, recording which way people voted.  The supervisor challenged the secret ballot accommodation and made a motion to vote instead with a show of hands.

The Democrats who attended the caucus had choices; they voted, and both the supervisor’s motion and his candidate lost.

Now there are accusations that my appointment to the town board back in 2011 deprived voters of a choice. The incumbent whose seat I filled [Travis Stevens] was elected to the county legislature that year.  Without knowing the outcome of that election, no one else could run for his seat.  As allowed by law, the other town board members made that temporary appointment.

In these situations, voters are given the first opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice to finish the unexpired term.  Voters then had another opportunity in 2013 to elect a candidate of their choice for a full term. I'm grateful for their support both years that I was successfully voted into office.

The democratic process depends upon rules, which both parties work to their advantage; and it also depends upon both parties watching each other to make sure everyone plays by the rules.  When the filing of notice of the Republican Party caucus was found to be deficient, it was rightfully challenged. A Republican judge presided over the case, and his ruling was in favor of upholding the challenge as correct and lawful. “The law’s the law.”

Amy Lauterbach Pokorny

Knox Town Board