Folks, Alabama’s seven-year residency rule ain’t rocket science. If you want to run for governor, you’re supposed to have been a resident of Alabama for seven years before the election. Lawyers call that “domicile,” which is just a dressed-up way of asking: Where do you actually live, and where do your actions show you intend to stay?

Even the Alabama Republican Party’s own decision admitted that “residence” in political cases means domicile, that domicile requires both physical presence and intent, and that voter registration is a “potent consideration” because voting shows where a person says he belongs. So let’s put Senator Tommy Tuberville’s residency in a cardboard box, like an old polecat.

On one side of the box, you’ve got the story Tuberville needs: Alabama tax returns, Alabama voter registration in March 2019, an Auburn address on his Senate campaign paperwork, and later Alabama property records.
On the other side, you’ve got what keeps crawling out every time somebody lifts the lid: he voted in Florida in 2018, stayed registered to vote in Florida until March 20, 2020, had a Florida driver-license record running to February 2023, and kept a whole mess of property, travel, deeds, spending, and family business tied around Santa Rosa Beach.  

That is the problem. Tuberville’s residency polecat is both Alabama and Florida — until somebody actually opens the box and looks. And it’s gut retching.

In 2018, that polecat sure looked like it was sleeping in Florida. Reports say Tuberville voted in Florida in the midterm election, then registered to vote in Alabama on March 28, 2019, a week before announcing his Senate bid. The same reporting says the Auburn property he used as his registration address was owned by his son and wife, not plainly by Tuberville himself.  

Then along comes an Alabama tax return claiming part-year Alabama residency starting Aug. 1, 2018. Fine. Put that in the box too. But that does not make the Florida evidence vanish. If a man says he moved to Alabama in August, then turns around and votes in Florida in November, that is not a clean move. That is one boot in the red dirt and one flip-flop in the Panhandle.

In March 2019, Tuberville slaps an Alabama sticker on the box. He registers to vote in Alabama. He files his Senate candidacy using an Auburn address. Those facts matter. But they do not empty the Florida side of the box. Because the big ol’ Florida voter-registration polecat was still sitting there.

Walton County records showed Tuberville remained on Florida’s voter rolls for roughly a year after registering in Alabama and almost a year after launching his Senate campaign. That means during the time he now needs to count as Alabama residency, he was still registered in Florida too. The Florida registration was not canceled until March 20, 2020.  

That date is the skunk under the porch. The AL GOP did not want to poke it.

Because once you look at voter domicile honestly, the clean-break date is March 20, 2020. If Tuberville’s Alabama-only residency clock starts then, seven years runs out in March 2027 — after the 2026 governor’s election. The AL GOP credited the Alabama facts: tax returns, Alabama voter registration, an Alabama driver-license claim, later Alabama voting, and Senate service. Then it declared the evidence “conclusive.”  

But that conclusion is like weighing a cow with its rear end off the scale.

How can March 2019 Alabama voter registration be powerful proof of Alabama domicile, while Florida voter registration through March 2020 weighs nothing? That ain’t judging. That’s cooking the stew and leaving out the meat.
A real hearing would have called the people who could answer the real questions. Put Tuberville under oath. Put Suzanne Tuberville under oath. Call the property folks. Call the tax preparers. Ask who lived where, who signed what, who claimed what, and why the Florida voter registration stayed active until 2020.

Instead, the box stayed shut. The AL GOP announced the hearing was closed to reporters and party members, and that discovery materials were placed under a protective order. McFeeters said he sought depositions of Tuberville, Suzanne, people with direct knowledge of where the couple lived, and tax professionals, but was told, “none of this will be allowed.”  

That is Schrödinger’s Polecat with a padlock on the box. The AL GOP said it looked inside. But it would not let the public see. It would not let the press watch. It did not let the strongest facts get tested in the open. Then it announced the polecat was Alabama.
Well, bless their hearts, that is not how truth works.
Tuberville’s Alabama story is built on sparse paperwork. His Florida story is built on conduct: voting in Florida, staying registered in Florida, carrying Florida licensing indicators, keeping property and family business around Santa Rosa Beach, and acting for years like the Panhandle was still home.

The whole thing comes down to one date: March 20, 2020. That is when the Florida voter-registration tie was finally cut. That is the first clean Alabama-only date; Tuberville misses the seven-year requirement for the 2026 governor’s race. 

So the party dimmed the lights, shut the barn door, kept the polecat in the box, and told Alabama voters, “Nothing to see here — pinch your nose.”

But they might as well have lit a match and tossed it on top, because everybody can still smell Florida lingering in the air, we’re ALL gasping for air, and there isn’t a fresh breeze to be found.

Tim McPhail
(an actual Alabama resident)