Candidates on both sides of a disputed municipal election on Monday said voters deserve to know the election process is fair.Knightstown held its Republican primaries for town clerk-treasurer and a pair of at-large town council seats alongside the county elections on May 5. No Democrats filed to run for those offices. Karla Gorman, one of the two candidates for clerk-treasurer, said she began to hear from voters who she knew lived outside the town limits that her name was showing up on their ballots."You go through all the trouble to go to vote and get ready and campaign and do these things, and then you find out you won, and then you find out you did win, but you didn't win," she said.Gorman defeated Bart Whitesitt by three votes, 238 to 235. Meanwhile, David Mattix and Guy Louks appeared to win the race for the two council seats, with 323 votes and 293 votes, respectively. Desiree Payton and Dakota Steele won 162 and 114 votes, respectively. On Friday, Whitesitt and Payton filed a complaint in which they said they believe a programming error caused ballots in three precincts to display Knightstown candidates regardless of whether or not a particular voter lived within the town limits."I thought maybe there was an easy fix to it (when I first heard about it), that maybe they were wrong," Payton said. "I want the town residents to feel like they have confidence in our elections."Gorman said it's frustrating to go through the process of running through an election only to have to do it all over again. She said if a judge does order a new election, she hopes there's enough time for all of the candidates to campaign."I would like to see the voters get out and vote again," she said. "I would like to see them do an election that is at least (similar) in length and well-advertised so people can get out and vote."Payton said she's not as frustrated because she believes it gives her another chance to make her case to the voters."I hope, with the election, we can show the community transparency and give fairness," she said.A hearing to contest the election has been scheduled for 2:30 p.m. June 24. Payton said she has not been given any other timelines for possible court actions. ...read more read less