Alabama Recount? Not Likely...But Moore Is Still Fundraising

Updated December 19, 2017: Roy Moore lost the special election for an Alabama Senate seat a week ago, but he's still fundraising. On Monday he sent out a campaign appeal requesting donations for his "Election Integrity Program", which he says is collecting stories of voter fraud and "various other irregularities" from across the state before the election certification on December 28.

The Secretary of State, however, has not received any actual reports of fraud or irregularities from the campaign. Nor has the campaign offered to pay for a recount, which they would have to fund since the state is not planning one for reasons detailed below.

Moore has still not formally conceded defeat in the race, and may never do so.

What’s the story?

Despite the Alabama special election Senate race being called for Democrat Doug Jones, GOP candidate Roy Moore has yet to concede defeat. He has dangled the idea of a recount in front of his supporters and encouraged them to wait for the final results.

But is a recount in Alabama likely? Not according to the numbers.

Alabama law requires an automatic recount if the difference between the results of the two top candidates is 0.5 percent or less.

As of midnight December 13, according to an analysis by the Washington Post, Jones had 671,151 votes and Moore 650,436. That’s 49.9 percent of the vote for Jones and 48.4 percent for Moore. Write-in votes account for 22,819 votes.

The difference between the two is 1.5 percent, which is not close enough to automatically trigger a recount.

Moore has said that the outcome may change once overseas service member’s votes are counted, but that would require 20,715 votes for Moore to come in from service members overseas and none for Jones. There are only 8,700 Alabama voters serving overseas as of May 2016.

Even if some of the write-in votes were miscounted and went to Moore in a recount, it would be highly unlikely it would be enough to push him past Jones.

According to the Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, this election is over. Moore could foot the bill for a recount himself, but there’s been no word from his campaign they have any intention to do that.

He never has to concede defeat either, but according to the numbers, that’s what happened.

What do you think?

If Moore, or some other party, wants to foot the bill for a recount, should there be one? Do you support Moore's campaign in investigating potential voter fraud and election irregularities, or do you think he is simply fomenting distrust in the electoral process to appeal to his base?

Tell us in the comments what you think, then use the Take Action button to tell your reps!

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— Asha Sanaker

(Photo Credit: Richard Angwin via Twitter)