This is an opinion column.

Moving can be a pain, but for one Alabama lawmaker, moving has been far more difficult than it is for most folks.

Rep. David Cole just can’t seem to make it work. He has tried to move twice in the last two years, but somehow he’s still living in the same house in north Alabama where he started.

You see, Cole’s house is in State House District 4.

The district Cole represents in the Alabama Legislature is House District 10.

Soon, his colleagues in the Alabama Legislature must decide whether Cole belongs there, among their ranks, or if he has to move out of the State House, too.

But before we get to that, let’s rewind to 2021. That’s when Alabama lawmakers last redrew district lines.

Before that redistricting, Cole’s house in Madison was in District 10 and he had ambitions to run for that office after state Rep. Mike Ball, R-Madison, retired.

Then the Legislature moved the lines and mucked up Cole’s plans. Cole’s house sits on the western edge of Madison County, right by the county line. The new map put Cole’s house in District 4, which already had an incumbent lawmaker with no plans on retirement, Rep. Parker Moore, R-Decatur.

Cole could have primaried Moore, but incumbents are hard to unseat.

Instead, he decided to move. Just up the road.

First, he rented space in a friend’s house about 2 miles away, also in Madison but in District 10,

Only, his friend never moved out of the house. Cole testified that he planned to share the house with his friend. Only Cole also testified that he has no idea how many bedrooms were in his friend’s house, nor how many bathrooms.

Cole has kids in his household. And the dog. How many bedrooms and bathrooms they’d have to share seems like important information.

Yet, when he signed the lease to share his friend’s place, the agreement was for “0 bedrooms” and “0 bathrooms.”

Perhaps, it’s no wonder moving was so hard when Cole and his wife had no bedrooms and no bathrooms to move into, much less a kitchen or a place to kick back and watch TV.

So Cole stayed in his old house, although he claimed the “0 bedroom” space as his official residence.

Later, he signed a lease on an apartment, also farther east along Zierdt Road in Huntsville, not far from the Trash Pandas stadium. That time, he put some furniture in it.

However, Cole didn’t change the homestead exemption on his taxes, which one can claim only for a primary residence.

Also he didn’t put other, seemingly important things in the new place, such as his wife and kids.

Or the dog.

They’re all still where he started.

When most of us move, it’s an ordeal. You have to notify utilities and let your employers know where to send your paychecks.

It’s a pain, but Cole seems to have found a novel solution. He hasn’t done hardly any of those things, or so he testified recently in a deposition.

His mail goes to his old house. He still pays the utilities at his old house.

One of my colleagues, Lee Roop, did me a favor and drove by Cole’s house, the one that’s not in the district he represents and … yep, still folks living in it.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen an elected official play this game. Fifteen years ago, I staked out Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford’s home in Fairfield where he continued to live through his term, at least until the feds took him away on unrelated corruption charges. Langford had done something similar to what Cole is doing now. He rented an apartment in Birmingham that he never got around to moving into.

But when called out on it in court, Langford said he intended to move there and considered it his real residence, not the place where he actually spent his nights.

Now Cole is leaning on the same handful of legal precedents that say residency is defined by intent to move, not actually moving.

However, Cole did change his drivers license and his voter registration. From his deposition, these seem to be the only things Cole did change.

Now, if you or I registered to vote in a place where we didn’t actually live, and then we voted in that other place, we might get into big trouble. There are laws against such things.

But not only did Cole vote in a district where he didn’t live, he ran for office in that place.

Cole won the Republican primary even though one of his primary opponents, Anson Knowles warned the Alabama Republican Party beforehand that Cole hadn’t lived in the district for a year prior, as required. But instead of kicking Cole off the ballot, the party kicked Knowles off the ballot, saying he wasn’t a real Republican.

Regardless, the party was warned and did nothing.

Next, the general came. Cole won a tight race against Democrat Marilyn Lands and distant finisher, Libertarian Elijah Boyd.

Boyd sued and contested Cole’s residency in court. But the Republican-controlled Legislature accepted Cole, anyway.

Cole’s attorney argued in court that only the Legislature can determine who is and isn’t a qualified lawmaker after the votes are certified. Ultimately, the Alabama Supreme Court agreed, although it let the lower courts manage depositions.

That’s the deposition where Cole said he still pays a guy to clean his pool — at his old house, where he keeps his stuff and where he sleeps, with his wife, his kids and his dog.

I left a message on Cole’s voicemail. His attorney, Al Agricola, later reached out to say Cole had nothing to add to what he said in his deposition.

Boyd’s attorney has since forwarded that deposition to the Alabama Legislature, which must now decide whether Cole can stay in office.

I reached out to Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter to ask how that might work or when the House might take action. His spokesman said it was unclear yet when or if the House would take further action.

But it’s their move.

And moving can be a pain.

More columns by Kyle Whitmire

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How Alabama Democrats could blow a Supreme Court victory

The moment Alabama’s lawyers turned a sure thing into blistering defeat

Alabama state Rep. John Rogers has been the feds’ target for 35 years. He isn’t afraid.