Alabama Secretary of State: Doug Jones will be certified today at 2p despite new claims from Roy Moore campaign https://t.co/RdlzRIUiO3
— New Day (@NewDay) December 28, 2017
Thursday morning, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill addressed Republican Roy Moore‘s lawsuit challenging the result of the special election for the U.S. Senate between him and Democrat Doug Jones. Moore claimed that the reason Jones received 20,000 more votes than him was voter fraud, and that Merrill should not certify the election results. Merrill told CNN’s “New Day” that despite Moore’s challenge, he will certify Jones’ victory later today.
Addressing whether Moore’s legal challenge will effect the certification process, Merrill said, “The short answer to that is no. Doug Jones will be certified today at 2 pm Eastern Time, 1 pm Central Time.”
Host Alisyn Camerota asked Merrill how he reached the conclusion that Moore’s claim of election fraud was not valid. Merrill didn’t address Moore’s case specifically, but he lumped it into more than 100 voter fraud claims that his office has received. He said that he’s adjudicated more than 60 of those claims, and gave an example of how ridiculous these claims can be. In one situation, Merrill said someone claimed that 5,000 people were recorded to have voted in the town of Bordolama, despite only 2,000 people living there. How did Merrill know this claim was bogus? No such town even exists.
While Merrill didn’t flat out say that Moore’s claim was equally spurious, that seemed to be the implication.
With the certification, Doug Jones will officially be declared the winner, and the next U.S. Senator from Alabama, filling the position once held by Republican Jeff Sessions before he became Attorney General.
Update 12/28/17 4:57pm: After a judge denied Moore’s claim, Merrill certified Jones’ victory. Moore said in a statement:
Election law experts across the country have agreed that this was a fraudulent election….
I have stood for the truth about God and the Constitution for the people of Alabama.
I have no regrets. To God be the glory.
NEW: Roy Moore issues statement calling special election “fraudulent”: “I have no regrets. To God be the glory.” https://t.co/Gz6ELkXobp pic.twitter.com/5Pr5ViDaCj
— ABC News (@ABC) December 28, 2017
