After eight years of hyperbolic claims that former President Donald Trump is a unique threat to the fabric of democracy, the Democratic Party is on course to disregard every ballot cast in this year’s presidential primaries and caucuses in nominating their presidential candidate.

We believe that, regardless of the strategic merits of this move and whether any specific voters believes it is the correct decision or a terrible decision, the choice to pressure President Joe Biden, after all those primary and caucus votes have been cast, to withdraw starts the Democratic Party off with a deficit of voters’ trust.

We would, not only for the interests of the Democratic ticket but the interests of the nation as a whole, caution Democrats to find a nominee for vice president who can repair that trust.

Gov. Josh Shapiro is not that nominee.

Set aside whether, with less than two years of experience as governor, Shapiro is truly qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

His time as governor has been marked with an appalling degree of evasiveness and secrecy.

As we noted in a Jan. 23, 2023, editorial, the Shapiro administration started with more than 300 members of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s transition team signing nondisclosure agreements about the transition — including what special-interest groups may be financially contributing to it.

As we said then, it was “a jarring, disheartening start.”

As we noted in a May 8 editorial, the governor has accepted thousands of dollars in sports tickets and in payment for renovations to the state-owned residence from the nonprofit group Team PA — without any effort to address that Team PA refuses to disclose who its donors are.

As we editorialized then, “this aversion to transparency erodes public trust” — the sort of public trust this unconventional Democratic ticket will sorely need.

Worse still, the Shapiro Administration once again called upon the use of nondisclosure agreements to settle sexual harassment claims against one of Shapiro’s advisers beyond the reach of public scrutiny.

The Democratic nominee will have sidestepped the process by which nominees earn and demonstrate the trust of the party’s voters. We don’t know if it will prove to be a gamble worth taking. We are confident, however, that it is in the interest of all Americans that the ticket attempts to prove to Americans that the party still values the trust of voters and still values the transparency necessary to earn that trust.

Gov. Shapiro has spent what little time he has been governor demonstrating contempt for that transparency.