A good way to think about the things government does is to ask, “Could I get away with this where I work?”

The comparison to the private sector helps because it strips away the partisan prejudices that so often cloud our judgment.

One thing almost all of us can agree on is this: Neither party has cornered the market on messing up.

When we apply the “where I work” test to David Whitley -- now the former interim Texas Secretary of State -- we know that he needed to go.

And we can say, without partisan bias, that Senate Democrats did the right thing in blocking Whitley’s confirmation after he hopelessly botched an investigation that questioned the citizenship of nearly 100,000 voters in Texas and that called on counties to further investigate them.

At least tens of thousands of those people placed on the list were citizens (in Harris County alone, 15,000 inaccuracies were identified).

In short, this was a massive failure on something critically important to the credibility of the state and its ability to enforce election law.

What would happen where you work? Or, better still, what should happen where you work?

Whitley, an appointee of Gov. Greg Abbott, resigned when it became apparent the legislative session would close without the Senate voting on his nomination. Though 19 Republican senators disappointingly still supported Whitley, Democrats stuck together and he failed to get two to cross the aisle, despite political pressure from Abbott.

Whitley did the citizens of this state a disservice when he hinted at widespread voter fraud with only suspicions and lacking solid evidence. He fed into anti-immigrant concerns without having his facts straight.

As we’ve said before, Texans deserve to know that voter rolls are accurate and that those who vote are eligible to do so. But they also deserve to have faith that the state’s top election official will ferret out the truth.

Whitley’s failure to get the facts straight tainted the whole process and fed into hysteria on both sides of the debate.

This debacle started shortly after Whitley was appointed to an interim post. He issued an advisory claiming that about 95,000 people who identified themselves as noncitizens when applying for a driver’s license at the Department of Public Safety also appeared on the state’s voter rolls. Whitley’s office then urged county election administrators to investigate the names on the list for possible voter fraud.

Whitley failed to take into account the fact that many of the people on the list could have -- and did -- become U.S. citizens between the time they applied for a driver's license and the time they registered to vote.

The whole embarrassing mess landed the state in court with officials acknowledging that at least 25,000 people were on the list erroneously and had already proven their citizenship.

Abbott now gets to choose a replacement who can serve for the next two years. It’s imperative to find someone who is serious about doing the necessary work of guarding against voter fraud, but whose actions are informed by accurate data and facts.

Having the competence to get the big things right should be the first qualifier for major office, whatever letter is next to one’s name.