Roy Moore declined to concede the U.S. Senate race in Alabama Tuesday night after his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, was declared the victor in a close contest.
The race between Moore and Jones was close – Jones received 671,151 votes, and Moore received 650,436. A total of 22,819 ballots were cast for write-in candidates.
“When the vote is this close, it is not over,” Moore said at his election night rally.
Bill Armistead, Moore’s campaign chairman, came on stage ahead of Moore and announced that his candidate is not conceding the election and floated a possible recount.
Moore echoed the specter of a recount.
“God is in control,” he added.
JUST IN: Roy Moore: “When the vote is this close, it's not over. We have to go by the rules of this recount provision.” pic.twitter.com/c5fmKjUJWp— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 13, 2017
John Merrill, Alabama secretary of state, said that any candidate can ask for a recount, although there is an automatic recount provision if the margin of votes received by each candidates is 0.5 percent or less.
“There’s always a chance of a recount because any candidate can ask for a recount, and if they pay for it, they can receive a recount,” Merrill said in an interview with CNN.
Jones received approximately 49.9 percent of votes, whereas Moore received approximately 48.4 percent, with very few votes remaining, according to New York Times tracker. Even so, the automatic recount provision may apply once write-in votes are accounted for.
“That would mean that a certain amount of votes between the two would have to change from what it is today in order for that to occur,” Merrill said. “One of those things that may allow that to happen is when those write-in votes are actually counted, that may change the numbers that are actually being considered today as authentic write-in votes.”
Jones and Moore were campaigning to fill the Alabama Senate seat previously held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions for the remainder of Sessions’ term until Jan. 2021. Luther Strange, who ran against Moore in the primary, has filled the seat in the interim.
Moore has spent the past several weeks fending off accusations of sexual misconduct with teenagers decades ago. He denies the charges and resisted pressure from within his own party to step aside.
