Is asking a voter what it will take to get their support equivalent to "vote buying?"

That's the contention of Stefanie Beninato, who is running for the District 2 City Council seat in Tuesday's municipal election.

She sent a letter Thursday to the city Ethics & Campaign Review Board questioning the way her opponent, incumbent Rebecca Wurzburger, and incumbent mayoral candidate David Coss ask residents who they will vote for.

Coss and Wurzburger declined comment. But Coss' campaign manager, Sandra Wechsler, called Beninato's complaint "really silly. Elections are about asking the public for support."

On Wednesday, Coss called east-side voters to ask "what they needed from him to vote for him," Beninato wrote in asking the city board to "censure this type of behavior."

"In my opinion," she wrote, "this type of conversation smacks of vote buying and would seem to be unethical and illegal. ... Although I do not think it rises to the same level, Ms. Wurzburger's insistence on knowing whether the voter is voting for her ... also seems to be an undue pressure on voters."

Members of the ethics committee also declined comment because they may be asked to rule on the complaint.

Jim Harrington, state director for public advocacy group Common Cause, who attended Thursday's meeting of the committee, said he saw nothing wrong with asking voters what would secure their votes.