This is an opinion column.

What does it take to prove that you live in a place?

For the Alabama Republican Party, it’s apparently a driver’s license and a voter registration. That’s sufficient evidence.

Except for when it isn’t.

Recently, Ken McFeeters, a Republican candidate for governor in Alabama, challenged the residency of his primary opponent, Tommy Tuberville. Under Alabama law, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor must live in the state for seven consecutive years before they may run for governor.

The Tuberville campaign says it turned over to the committee “definitive proof” that he is and has been an Alabama resident for the last seven years.

And what was that proof?

A driver’s license and state voting records.

That was enough for the Alabama Republican Party Steering Committee to declare the case closed.

The committee, in a night conference call, voted unanimously to kill McFeeter’s challenge in an official proceeding.

A license and voter registration were sufficient proof of residency.

At least it was that time.

But here’s the thing. The residency challenge against Tuberville wasn’t the only one before the committee. Former Alabama lawmaker Gil Isbell also questioned the residency of Nehemia John Wahl, who stepped down as Alabama GOP party chairman to run for lieutenant governor.

The documentation Isbell gave the committee was much more comprehensive than what McFeeters had included in his challenge — 75 pages, total. But the crux of Isbell’s argument came down to two documents.

A driver’s license Wahl obtained in Tennessee in late 2020 and a voter registration there from the same time.

Tennessee law, like most states, requires people applying for a driver’s license to say and show they are residents of that state. Isbell’s complaint included copies of that law.

When I first asked Wahl about that Tennessee driver’s license last year, Wahl told me then that he had intended to move to Tennessee but never did so full-time. Since then, his argument seems to have evolved slightly. He now says he had a dual residence, like a vacation home, there, but never left Alabama.

But here’s the thing. Wahl and Tuberville’s cases are somewhat mirror opposites of each other.

One man says a driver’s license and voter registration is sufficient proof he moved back to Alabama.

The other says a driver’s license and voter registration is not proof he moved to Tennessee.

If logic held any weight whatsoever anymore, only one of these men could move on to the next round.

But logic has nothing to do with this. The same committee that voted unanimously in favor of letting Tuberville on the ballot narrowly approved Wahl’s candidacy, in a 10-9 vote.

It is in the best interests of the Alabama Republican Party to settle these residency questions now, rather than for Democrats to exploit them later.

It is in the best interests of Alabama for the party to settle these questions now, instead of in some sort of legal fight later.

The party steering committee could have done that. They could have held hearings. They could have heard arguments. They could have asked and considered more and better evidence — tax records, utility bills, etc.

But they didn’t.

Because they didn’t do their job.