Roy Moore might have to actually concede to Doug Jones now
Roy Moore may have ridden his horse to the end of the road.
The office of Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R) announced Wednesday that it had received 5,333 total overseas and provisional ballots pertaining to the Dec. 12 special election between Moore, a Republican, and Democrat Doug Jones, who were vying to fill Alabama's open Senate seat. The race had been called for Jones hours after polls closed, but Moore had refused to concede, citing outstanding ballots that had yet to be counted.
But Jones achieved victory by a margin of nearly 21,000 votes, meaning that even if all 5,333 of the late ballots received by Merrill's office had been marked for Moore, it wouldn't be enough to put him over the top. On election night, Merrill told CNN he thought it was "highly unlikely" that Jones would not be declared the winner of the race, even as Moore's camp clung to the idea of the outstanding ballots and floated the possibility of a recount.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Alabama state law stipulates that should the results of a race fall within 0.5 percent, an automatic recount would be triggered. As the Montgomery Adviser notes, even if Moore won all of the new votes, "Jones' margin of victory, currently 1.5 percent, would fall to 1.1 percent."
Moore's stunning loss in the deep-red state came after he was accused by several women of pursuing, groping, or assaulting them when they were teenagers and he was in his early 30s. The Moore campaign did not respond to request for comment from the Montgomery Adviser regarding the Wednesday announcement from Merrill's office, while a spokesman for Jones wrote: "This election has been over since Dec. 12."
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescue
Speed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in Morocco
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Mexico's next president will almost certainly be its 1st female president
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
North Korea's Kim to visit Putin in eastern Russia to discuss arms sales for Ukraine war, U.S. says
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Gabon's military leader sworn in following coup in latest African uprising
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstances
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governor
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published