Roy Moore won’t concede Senate race
Vote count will be certified Thursday, state office says
Vote tallies clearly show Doug Jones as winner in Alabama, but embattled Republican remains defiant.
It’s been two weeks and Republican Roy Moore has yet to concede in Alabama’s special Senate race, even as election officials move toward certifying Democrat Doug Jones’ victory in the days ahead.
As vote tallies from 100 percent of the state’s precincts show Alabamians have clearly selected Jones, Moore has offered no indication that he plans to concede the race.
On Friday, all of Alabama’s 67 counties were required to officially file their election results to the secretary of state’s office. In a statement, Secretary of State John Merrill said his office plans to officially certify the election Thursday.
Also Friday, some of the names left on thousands of write-in ballots began to emerge. Some names are surprising. Who knew SpongeBob SquarePants had a constituency?
Moore’s campaign did not respond immediately to a request for comment about any plans to concede.
Since the Dec. 12 special election, Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who faced sexual misconduct allegations during the campaign, has remained defiant.
In a short video thanking his supporters, Moore declared that “immorality sweeps our land,” and railed against abortion and same-sex marriage and said, “Abortion, sodomy and materialism have taken the place of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
“We are indeed in a struggle to preserve our republic, our civilization, and our religion and to set free a suffering humanity. And the battle rages on,” he said in the four-minute video posted to YouTube. “Today, we no longer recognize the universal truth that God is the author of our life and liberty.”
Jones, a former U.S. attorney, said it’s time for the state to come together. He’s the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Alabama in a quarter-century.
“I say it’s time to move on. Alabama has spoken,” Jones said on CNN last week, adding that “now it’s time to heal.”
In the special contest to fill the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, who is now U.S. attorney general, Jones bested Moore by about 20,700 votes.
Nearly 22,800 Alabamians chose neither candidate and wrote in their choice, which, in turn, hurt Moore’s candidacy.
Republican Richard Shelby, Alabama’s senior senator, did not endorse Moore and announced that he cast a write-in for a “distinguished” candidate.
He didn’t explicitly tell voters to cast write-ins.
Nick Saban, the University of Alabama head football coach, received 264 write-in votes, according to a report from AL.com.
But the candidates to receive the most write-ins were mostly seasoned politicians and public figures.
Sen. Luther Strange, who lost to Moore in the Republican primary, netted 5,822 write-in votes, according to AL.com.
Lee Busby, a retired Marine who launched his write-in campaign as Moore’s sexual misconduct allegations emerged, raked in nearly 3,600 votes.