Inexcusable Electioneering

What explains the criminal forgeries alleged last week against the former East Hampton Town Republican chairman and a leader of the local Independence Party is hard to pin down, but amid an atmosphere of overheated partisanship the matter is, sadly, not that much of a surprise.

The charges are easy to understand although the motivation for them is not as clear. According to Timothy Sini, the Suffolk district attorney, Amos Goodman, at the time the Republican leader, and Pat Mansir, a former East Hampton Town Board member and trustee, collectively forged at least 50 signatures on nominating petitions in advance of the special town board election in November. Mr. Goodman backed Lisa Larsen, but the party chose Manny Vilar as its standard-bearer; he eventually lost in a landslide to David Lys. 

Ms. Mansir was said to have broken the law while she was circulating a petition for David Gruber; though he got the Independence Party’s nod, he was dropped from the ballot after a state court justice found that the petitions were “replete with fraudulent dates and forged signatures and/or initials of signatories and/or subscribing witnesses.” Neither Mr. Gruber nor Ms. Larsen has been accused of wrongdoing.

So why did their backers supposedly commit felonies? In the quiet days of December it is difficult to remember the frenzy that led up, first, to a Democratic primary and then to the November vote. Charges and countercharges flew. The town Democrats split into factions, with Mr. Gruber’s side sticking to the low road and apparent all-out thirst to defeat Mr. Lys. Mr. Vilar’s chances were all but dashed in advance, if only to judge from his loss in a town supervisor bid the previous year. Amid all that — and the national picture of cheating, Russian involvement, and lack of compromise — perhaps a win-at-all costs mentality took hold.

Mr. Vilar is now the town Republican chairman, and if nothing else, his long career as a law enforcement officer and police union leader gives us more confidence that upcoming electioneering will be more orderly. As for the Independence Party’s prospects, its attraction always has had a lot to do with its outsider stance. Its chairwoman, Elaine Jones, who, among others, took the suspicions about Mr. Amos’s petitions to the district attorney, is in it for the long haul. 

As for the next election, all parties and their volunteers need to remember that trust in government is very fragile and that cheating not only diminishes the public’s confidence but can land the perpetrators in a whole lot of trouble.