POCATELLO — Idaho elections officials say a retired Pocatello dentist has been a resident of Legislative District 29 long enough to run for a local state representative seat after residency issues were recently raised.

The Idaho Secretary of State’s Office says House of Representatives candidate Greg Romriell was a qualified elector within District 29 at least one year prior to the upcoming general election date of Nov. 8 after his opponent in the May 17 Republican primary election, Idaho State University graduate and Army Warrant Officer Jake Stevens, raised issue with Romriell’s residency. The winner of the Romriell-Stevens Republican primary election next month for the local state representative seat will face Democrat Nate Roberts in the November general election.

Stevens earlier this month reached out to Bannock County Clerk Jason Dixon with information contending that Romriell was not a resident of District 29 by the Nov. 8, 2021, cutoff date. According to an email Stevens sent Dixon on April 14, Stevens said Romriell had been a resident of Orem, Utah, for nearly the past decade prior to 2022 until he purchased a townhouse in Pocatello in August 2021. Additionally, Stevens said Romriell visited Pocatello in October 2021 and used documents associated with the purchase of his home to register to vote in Bannock County, specifically Legislative District 29, in October 2021.

Stevens contends in the email that Romriell had not in fact moved back to Pocatello at that time and instead “had simply purchased a home that remained unoccupied and registered to vote despite maintaining primary residence with his wife in Orem.”

The email Stevens sent to Dixon included information stating contact was made with a dentist office in Provo, Utah, and the receptionist there confirmed Romriell remained an employee of the office until February. Further, the email stated that Romriell’s church bishop in Orem said Romriell’s “primary residence was here in Orem, Utah, until his wife’s passing,” which happened in February.

Stevens said the information contained in the email was collected by one of his supporters and he then he forwarded that information to Dixon. On Thursday, Dixon said he confirmed as accurate the information that Stevens provided him concerning the statement’s from Romriell’s bishop regarding his Utah residency. Dixon did not make contact with the dental office in Provo, he said.

Stevens told the Journal during a Wednesday phone interview that he believes Bannock County erroneously registered Romriell to vote in October 2021 and that he should never have been classified as an Idaho resident at the time.

“The evidence that he was not in fact a resident of Idaho is overwhelming,” Stevens said. “He sold his house in Pocatello in 2019 but he had married that woman in 2012, so he essentially has been outside of the district for the past 10 years.”

The Journal also spoke to Romriell via telephone on Wednesday. He contends that he only lived in Utah temporarily while caring for his sick wife and had always intended on residing in Pocatello.

Romriell said after his first wife passed away in 2010 from brain cancer he was introduced to a woman from Orem, whom he fell in love with and married in 2011.

“I commuted from Pocatello to Orem for eight years and made over 800 trips back and forth during that time,” Romriell said. “I would work three or four days a week in Pocatello and spend the rest of my time with my wife down in Utah.”

Romriell said he moved to Orem full time when his son took over his dentist practice in Pocatello four years ago and that his wife developed ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, three years ago.

Over a year ago, Romriell said he contacted a builder to construct him a home near O.K. Ward Park and that he would split time in Orem with his wife and in Pocatello with his children until the home was completed in July 2021.

“When the home was finished I made arrangements to have a nephew live in the home while he attended ISU because I was still working for another dentist in Utah,” Romriell said. “I told the dentist that as soon as my wife passed away I would be moving back to Idaho where I had bought a home.”

Romriell said he then registered to vote in Bannock County in October 2021, cast his ballot in the general election that following month and paid his taxes in Pocatello as he had always done for the 50 years he practiced as a dentist in the Gate City before leaving to take care of his wife.

“There is nothing in the legislation that says you have to live in your home seven days per week for 52 weeks of the year,” Romriell said. “Many businessmen are out of town five days of the week and then come home on the weekends and I was coming back to Pocatello for more than just the weekends.”

After receiving the complaint from Stevens, Dixon forwarded the concerns to the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office, which is the entity that is tasked with determining whether or not an individual is qualified to run for the office of state representative.

In addition to being a qualified elector in the legislative district in which the candidate is running for at least one year at the time of the general election, a person is qualified to run for a state representative seat so long as they are age 21 and a citizen of the United States, Deputy Secretary of State Jason Hancock told Dixon in a April 18 email.

“Since the Bannock County Clerk’s office validated and processed a voter registration for Mr. Romriell on October 22, 2021, he meets all three criteria to run for the office of state representative in the legislative district within which he is registered to vote,” Hancock said. “Mr. Stevens is questioning whether or not the Bannock County Clerk’s office SHOULD HAVE registered Mr. Romriell to vote on October 22, 2021. Section 34-107, Idaho Code, and much of the case law surrounding the issue of voter registration, places great importance on where the voter INTENDS for his permanent home to be. And while Mr. Romriell’s wife’s terminal health condition, and the work that he was doing locally while caring for his wife, meant that he had to be physically located in Utah while his wife was still living, he can certainly argue that this residence was temporary, and that it was his INTENT for the Pocatello home he purchased in the summer of 2021 to be his permanent home.”

Moreover, Hancock also said that Stevens’ concern regarding whether or not Romriell should have been registered to vote in 2021 is now a moot point because nobody is questioning his qualifications now.

“Even if the Bannock County Clerk’s office were to conclude that it should not have registered Mr. Romriell to vote in Bannock County on October 22, 2021, no one is questioning whether he meets the qualifications to be registered to vote in Bannock County today, and there is no provision in law for a county clerk to revoke a currently-valid registration retroactively,” Hancock said. “And the fact remains that Mr. Romriell met each of the qualifications to be placed on the ballot as a candidate for state representative.”

When asked for his take on the secretary of state’s determination, Stevens said he thinks the office interpreted the law the best way that it could, but he strongly believes Romriell’s residency issues should disqualify him from running. Stevens added he is concerned with what precedent the interpretation sets for future elections.

“Let’s say somebody with a lot of money from California wants to get involved in Idaho politics, all they have to do is just buy a house out here, fly out and use a utility bill from that house to register as a voter and then say that it was always their intent to move to Idaho even though they didn’t make the move until long after the deadline,” Stevens said. “The evidence that Greg had zero intention to move to Pocatello until February is there and that’s obvious. The fact that he is being considered a resident by the Secretary of State is an incorrect interpretation of the law if you ask me personally.”

The Secretary of State’s Office told the Journal on Friday that based on current evidence the investigation into the matter is over.

Hancock told the Journal during a Wednesday phone interview that Stevens does have one recourse available to him in that he can contest the election if Romriell defeats him in the primary next month.

“If Mr. Stevens does lose to Mr. Romriell in the primary election he could come in under the Elections Contest Act and contest the election and claim Mr. Romriell was not a bona fide resident of Idaho at the time he was registered to vote in October,” Hancock said. “It’s hard to second guess what a judge might say in that scenario.”

Stevens said he is aware of the Elections Contest Act but said there is no action of recourse available to him if he wins the primary next month.

“What is the recourse if I win? There is none,” Stevens said. “I have spent $8,000 on a primary election that I could have saved for the general and I have no recourse. Being able to challenge it after the fact does me no good whatsoever. I am trying to avoid spending additional money and that is what the real bummer is.”