Letters

Town voters, beware! The national movement to undermine faith in the electoral process has become decidedly local.

Otherwise, how can one explain the selectively scathing commentary on party officials doing what they have always done: position their candidates to win seats as conditions on the ground change [“Under Attack,” Editorial, April 17].

Some of the Democratic and Republican nominees declined their party’s nominations, following the letter of New York’s Election Law, which provides that candidates may decline “not later than five days after the mailing of notification of nomination.” Not powerful forces, just party politics.

I accepted my party’s nomination enthusiastically, and I decided to decline to, hopefully, run another day, or serve another way.

I can attest to the fact that I only saw a Democratic Committee and its leadership dedicated to openness and a fair process in which independent thinkers are elevated and supported, in which any qualified candidate can be nominated from the floor. It’s not undemocratic, nobody was disenfranchised and there’s no shadowy puppet master messing with your ballot.

Simply put, it’s just that things change. In the case of our local elections, a former council member was just reelected in a special election with only seven months left in the current term. Town Supervisor Maria Moore is a levelheaded, moderate consensus-builder with a track record of getting things done. Maybe that explains why the Republicans, Conservatives and the Democrats pivoted to scale back their slates and concentrate their efforts.

If “politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, [and] diagnosing it incorrectly” (Ernest Benn), then ganging up on Gordon Herr, the long-serving, hard-working, principled Democratic Party chair looks to me like some form of dark arts. Why have recent editorials and letters singled him out, when the theory was that deals had been made across all major parties? Is this an example of the proverbial thumb on the political scales? Or is it just the sin of treating like things differently?

And what’s with vilifying fusion voting? It gives voters more choice. Parties can cross-endorse candidates who have wide appeal. There are calls to reinstate it everywhere, because many people feel disaffected with the two major parties. The informed voter should not be at risk of confusion, and informed is what a voter must be in a democracy.

Why do the right-leaning parties seem to get a pass for the same alleged machinations while they wear their voter suppression goals as a badge of honor?

There are impactful choices to be made on November 4. Those choices will determine what Southampton stands for, and they should be made in an atmosphere free of innuendo and demonizing disguised as investigative reporting.

Willa J. Bernstein

Southampton