ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 TAG: 9610160018
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
ELECTIONS officials occupy a unique place in American democracy. They must be regarded as incorruptible. That's why it was important to ensure that Phyllis K. Hanks no longer act as Pulaski County registrar.
Hanks was charged on Sept. 19 with embezzling $1,721. Nevertheless, the county Electoral Board had decided on Sept. 24 not to ask for her resignation. This week, the board wisely changed its mind.
Maintaining the public trust does not mean a policy-maker must never compromise, can never err, should not learn from experience. The tugs and pulls of policy debates and political considerations are part of democracy.
But part of elections officials' uniqueness is that they are not, typically, policy-makers. What they do, rather, is serve as guardians of the body politic's most vital organ - the elections process by which the policy-makers are chosen and from which all else, directly or indirectly, flows.
The charge against Hanks is that she deposited three Bell Atlantic refund checks to her office in her personal account, money that she has restored to the office account. Perhaps a case could be made that she should simply have been suspended, pending resolution of her court case, rather than fired outright, which was the action taken by the Electoral Board. Clearly, though, she had to be removed from supervision of the Nov. 5 election.
The removal is not coming cost-free. There is the loss of Hanks' expertise. Electoral Board Secretary A. J. Smith Jr., a cousin of Hanks, had urged her retention and has resigned. Losing both Smith and Hanks means Pulaski County, just three weeks before the election, faces a serious elections-experience deficit.
On a positive note, at least the dispute isn't partisan. Hanks is a Democrat; Smith is a Republican; Margaret Farris, who chairs the board and who had expressed public disagreement with the initial decision to keep Hanks on, is a Democrat. The board agreed Tuesday to ask the local political parties each to submit the names of two people who could pinch-hit in helping supervise the balloting.
The situation, in short, isn't ideal. But the greater cost would have come from doing nothing. If citizens' money has been mishandled, that could put at risk the citizens' confidence in the handling of something even more precious - their votes.
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