When Will Moore or Jones Have to Run Again
Alabama Certifies Jones Win, Brushing Aside Challenge From Roy Moore
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama officials on Thursday unhesitatingly pushed aside a legal challenge from Roy S. Moore and certified Doug Jones as the winner of this month's Senate election.
The activity, during a cursory meeting at the State Capitol, was essentially the country'southward last footstep before the seating of the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Alabama in a quarter century. It was also a swift rejection, past some of the state's most powerful Republicans, of Mr. Moore'south complaint that he was the victim of "systematic voter fraud."
Mr. Jones'southward margin of victory was 21,924 votes, with more than 1.three 1000000 ballots cast.
The certification leaves Mr. Moore, 70, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Courtroom whose entrada faltered partly because of allegations of sexual misconduct against teenage girls, with nearly no avenues to derail Mr. Jones's ascension to the Senate. The election aftermath followed a familiar pattern for Mr. Moore, who in the past has been eager to declare victories and pronounce grievances — but unwilling to concede defeats.
To this day, Republicans notation, Mr. Moore has not conceded his losses in the 2006 or 2010 Republican primaries for governor, and there is already speculation in Montgomery that he might run for governor or attorney general next year.
"Yous win with form, you lose with class, and he just can't do it," Angi Horn Stalnaker, a Republican strategist who ran campaigns, with mixed success, against Mr. Moore, said acidly.
On Thursday, Mr. Moore seemed to come close to acknowledging his loss. "I accept stood for the truth well-nigh God and the Constitution for the people of Alabama," he said in a statement. "I take no regrets. To God exist the glory."
Before the results of the Dec. 12 special election were certified, and in the candidate'south statement later on, Mr. Moore and his campaign left picayune doubtfulness about their assessment of the vote.
In a lawsuit filed in a state court late Wed, Mr. Moore, who denied the allegations of sexual impropriety, complained that pervasive fraud had tainted the election, and that the Alabama authorities had inadequately investigated potential misconduct.
But Mr. Moore constitute himself aligned against Democrats and Republicans alike. Secretary of State John H. Merrill, a Republican who voted for Mr. Moore, said he had institute no evidence of owned fraud and refused to postpone the certification. Judge Johnny Hardwick of Montgomery County Circuit Courtroom, citing a lack of jurisdiction, dismissed Mr. Moore'south complaint minutes before the vote was certified.
Mr. Jones, whose transition team had called the lawsuit "a desperate attempt past Roy Moore to subvert the volition of the people," said in a statement that his victory "marks a new chapter for our state and the nation."
Although the state ultimately certified the results, Mr. Moore's litigation infused a strain of drama into a twenty-four hours that Alabama officials had hoped would be procedural and perfunctory. Mr. Moore's lawsuit was late in coming: His lawyers filed their lawsuit at 10:33 p.m. on Midweek.
Still the complaint past Mr. Moore, a figure with a penchant for terminal-infinitesimal legal theatrics, was not altogether surprising. He and his allies have spent the last several weeks signaling their unease with the voting process, and, while saying picayune else publicly, Mr. Moore solicited contributions for an "election integrity fund."
Until Wed night, information technology was non clear what would come of his efforts. And so, in a court filing that ran for dozens of pages, Mr. Moore argued that returns in the state's most populous county "confirmed election fraud." It besides said that turnout in the county was suspiciously high; information technology suggested that Mr. Jones had benefited from voter intimidation; and it argued that Mr. Moore'south opponents had spread "lies and fraudulent misrepresentations."
To support his arguments, Mr. Moore included affidavits from several people his campaign described as experts in elections; one has claimed to take "mathematically proved a conspiracy to assassinate" President John F. Kennedy. (Mr. Moore has himself indulged in conspiracy theories, including that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.)
Experts unaffiliated with either the Jones or Moore campaigns quickly said the lawsuit's arguments appeared meritless.
"It seems to eddy downwards to: I should have won under the exit poll and all of this voting by African-Americans must testify fraud," Richard L. Hasen, an elections police practiced at the University of California, Irvine, wrote on his weblog.
Although the Alabama Republican Party, and many elected officials, stood behind Mr. Moore during his campaign, he had few influential allies by the time the certification meeting began at the Capitol. Party leaders, including President Trump, who endorsed Mr. Moore, had called for him to concede.
Mr. Moore could conceivably ask the Senate, which has the ramble authority to serve as "judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its ain members," not to seat Mr. Jones. Republican leaders in Washington are unlikely to heed whatsoever such telephone call.
But the final tally reflects Mr. Moore's indelible appeal to many Republicans here, and Mr. Moore's strength, macerated as information technology is, has fueled speculation about whether he volition unsettle the land's politics next year.
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Santa and SpongeBob Helped Doug Jones Win. Here's How.
There were more than 22,000 write-in votes cast in the Alabama Senate race. That number exceeded the margin of Doug Jones'southward victory. Republicans, unwilling to cross party lines, but unhappy with Roy Southward. Moore, presumably wrote in these names.
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Chuck Norris, Bugs Bunny ... "What's up, Doc?" ... SpongeBob ... "I'1000 fix. I'k ready." ... and even Jesus Christ. All of those names played a part in electing Democrat Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate in Alabama over Roy Moore. There were more than than 22,000 write-in votes cast in the highly watched race. That number exceeded the margin of Jones's victory. Mickey Mouse, Santa Claus and the ghost of Stonewall Jackson didn't really stand a chance. Neither did one of the more mainstream write-ins: Jeff Sessions. Republicans, unwilling to cantankerous party lines but unhappy with Moore, presumably wrote in these names after he was accused of sexual set on and misconduct. Information technology's referred to as the protest ballot, and it's cypher new. In the recent New York race for mayor, citizens cast votes for Michael Bloomberg, President Trump and even Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis. Jesus Christ, fresh off his losses in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections, also made an appearance — on the ballot, that is. Big Bird, SpongeBob and Wonder Adult female did too. Now, just writing a name in doesn't mean that your vote will count. 9 states don't permit write-in candidates for president. Of the 41 states that practise, most crave a candidate to file paperwork in advance. Only that hasn't stopped voters. In 2008, Republican John McCain received a write-in vote for president. Why was that dissimilar? Because his name was already on the ballot. The voter's note antiseptic: "John McCain of 2000, non 2008. (Totally different people)"
A campaign for either governor or attorney general would involve challenging a Republican incumbent and would test just how weary and wary the party is of Mr. Moore.
"On newspaper, he would be competitive in a Republican primary," said Land Auditor Jim Zeigler, a Republican who supported Mr. Moore in the Senate election and is himself because a run for governor. "But the campaign is not won or lost on paper, only like a football game. On paper, Alabama was going to beat Auburn, and information technology didn't happen."
The political math for Mr. Moore is certainly more than complicated than ever earlier.
He was twice elected — and effectively twice removed — as master justice, and he would enter any 2018 race with some of the advantages that tin come with decades in public life: name recognition and, likely, the sustained fealty of the devoted supporters who helped him earn more than 650,000 votes on Dec. 12.
Simply before the Senate race, many of Mr. Moore's critics regarded him as bigot and a demagogue who cheered discrimination confronting gay people and Muslims. After the entrada, some of his critics also saw him every bit a predator toward younger women. And the coalition that sunk Mr. Moore's entrada — young people, women and black voters in major cities and rural counties — has not gone abroad.
If Mr. Moore harbors whatsoever ambitions of moving into the neoclassical Governor's Mansion, he volition accept to human activity on them quickly: The deadline for declaring a statewide candidacy is Feb. 9.
Several of Mr. Moore'due south advisers, including his campaign's chairman and treasurer, did not respond to letters this week. Simply a former primary of staff to Mr. Moore, Ben Dupré, said that Mr. Moore is "a guy that does non compromise."
"He doesn't have his orders from the Republican Party or the Democrat Party," said Mr. Dupré, who sometimes spoke for Mr. Moore during the campaign but concluded his role soon after the ballot. "He actually believes in post-obit the Constitution and in following God and in following what he believes is his duty to God and to the country."
Mr. Dupré added, "If he has a reason non to concede, he'south not going to concede. He'south got no friends in D.C. — we know that, we knew that going into this — and he's not trying to play their game of, 'Oh, nosotros smeared your reputation, so you should roll over and go abroad.'"
Mr. Dupré, who spoke hours before Mr. Moore brought his lawsuit, may accept a point.
After Mr. Moore faltered in 2006, a political scientist predicted to an Alabama paper that it would be "very difficult for him to come back and be a major force in Alabama politics."
Less than seven years later, Mr. Moore, already ousted in one case from the Supreme Court, was elected chief justice — again.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/us/politics/roy-moore-block-election.html
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