Roy Moore continues to ignore calls to concede the Alabama Senate race he lost to Democrat Doug Jones on December 12th. In the days following the election, Moore’s campaign released an almost five-minute video in which Moore spoke about the issues facing our nation and why he will continue his fight to have the election results examined and sent a letter to supporters to raise funds for an “election integrity fund.”
In the video released by his campaign, Moore thanked his supporters for standing by him and pledged to watch closely as military and provisional ballots continue to be counted. “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. In this race, we have not received the final count to include military and provisional ballots. This has been a very close race and we are awaiting certification by the Secretary of State.”
He moved on to name a long list of issues facing our nation, including how “our political process has been affected with baseless and false allegations which have become more relevant than the issues which affect our country.” He cited this Senate race as proof of the corruption in our political process, saying that, “This election was tainted by over $50 million dollars from outside groups who want to retain power and their corrupt ideology.”
In the letter supporters received last week, he said that his campaign needed to collect $75,000. They would use these funds to gather instances of “voter fraud and other irregularities at polling locations throughout the state.” He continued, “My campaign team is busy collecting numerous reported cases of voter fraud and irregularities for the Secretary of State’s office.”
Moore has few friends in high places helping him with his campaign to challenge the results of the election, which he lost by over 20,000 votes out of the over 1.3 million cast, or 1.5 percent of the vote. President Trump answered a question about Moore conceding Friday at the White House. “I think he should," said the President. In addition, a source told CNN that former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who visited Alabama to campaign for Moore, told Moore’s campaign that he needs to concede.
Alabama’s senior Senator, Richard Shelby, congratulated Doug Jones on his victory. Shelby did not support Moore in the campaign and wrote in another name rather than voting for him. Senator Luther Strange, whom former Governor Robert Bentley appointed to fill the seat until the special election, has already pledged to help Jones with the transition that needs to take place before he takes his seat.
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican who voted for Moore, expects to certify the vote the week after Christmas. He told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he does not anticipate any issues that would change the results of the elections. “The people of Alabama have spoken tonight. They’ve made their voice heard loud and clear.”
Photo courtesy: Religion News Service
Publication date: December 18, 2017
