Legislative District 22 Senate Republican write-in candidate Dick Weed doesn’t live in District 22, according to a quick search of his residential address.

His home is actually in the heavily Democratic District 26. And he’s not alone. In fact, several candidates this year – and in past years – don’t live in the districts where they run.

The Secretary of State’s Office receives candidate filing paperwork but does not check the residency information. And the law doesn’t require any office to check that.

Secretary of state spokeswoman Sophia Solis said in an email that, as the filing office, it only checks whether the candidate sent in the right documents – not whether the right information appears on those documents. “It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they meet the eligibility requirements for the office they are running for as candidate filings are subject to legal challenge,” the spokesperson said in an email.

Republican attorney Tim La Sota said there is nothing in statute requiring the secretary of state or any other office to check residency requirements – but he still blames Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who also is the Democratic nominee for governor. “I think it’s another example of Katie being asleep at the switch there. I mean, she doesn’t really show up for work very often,” La Sota said.

But that practice didn’t start with Hobbs.

Republican former Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who is running for the State Senate in Legislative District 1, said it was the policy of his office not to enforce whether someone lived in the correct district or the district they were running in.

He said that the investigation is really left up to candidates’ opponents and to voters.

“Because eventually that’s going to end up in a court scenario, and we didn’t want to play judge at the counter,” said Bennett, who was Secretary of State from 2011 to 2014.

Bennett also noted that there’s nothing prohibiting a secretary of state from speaking to voters about filing with an out-of-district address.

Sen. President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, has argued that there’s no law stopping the Secretary of State’s Office from telling candidates they messed up.

“Whose job is it?” Fann asked. “There is no statute or regulation that directs the staff at the SoS office about how much assistance they can or cannot offer a candidate,” Fann said. She referred to a write-in candidate who ran against her in 2020 with a residential address outside the district and recalled that the SoS told her she could file a lawsuit. “I’m going, ‘Why would I file a lawsuit and spend thousands of dollars out of my pocket to remove someone from the ballot that you didn’t even bother to check?’” Fann said.

Fann referred to this year’s crowded District 22 race where three candidates listed out-of-district addresses – although two of them withdrew after reporters pointed it out. “You’re going to have people that are writing in names or voting for people that aren’t even legally allowed to accept the nomination and the voters have no idea,” she said.

In other races this year, Libertarian District 7 write-in candidate Jeff “J.D.” Daniels listed an address in District 26. Democratic District 20 write-in candidate Eric Perkins listed his address in District 24. District 7 write-in candidate Chris Verrill listed his address in District 1.

Fann said the Legislature could introduce a bill requiring the secretary of state to notify candidates in the future if they’re filing in the wrong district but said that it’s “insulting” for the secretary of state not to take the initiative and do it without a new state law.

Fann won’t be in the Legislature to push that bill, but other Republicans showed interest in the idea.

“I’m surprised that the SOS does not already verify the residence. Yes, I would definitely support legislation for that. Disappointed that we would need to mandate them to do their job,” Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said in a text.

Petersen is running for Senate again and is gunning for the role of Senate president if he is re-elected. He said he could be the one to run the bill but didn’t commit to it.

“I imagine once we have elections committees set up there will be a member that will run it,” Petersen said in a text.

Bennett said he’d be more likely to support a change requiring the secretary of state to notify a candidate they’re using the wrong address, but not require them to change it.

The Legislature has the power to require the Secretary of State’s Office to check filings in the future, but unless lawsuits are filed against illegitimate candidates this year, they can still win their races.

If a candidate wins and lives in the wrong district, Republican attorney Kory Langhofer confirms that they would be allowed to serve until someone filed a lawsuit against them and won.