Alabama’s Secretary Of State Says Recount In U.S. Senate Race is Unlikely
Former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore has not yet admitted defeat. After losing to Democratic opponent Doug Jones Moore addressed his supporters election night, saying “its not over” and implying that there may be a recount.
Secretary of State John Merrill explains that it’s not quite that simple. According to the State Code of Alabama, in an election for any public office, if a candidate is not defeated by more than one half of a percent of votes, there will be an automatic recount. After a look at Tuesday’s results, that is simply not the case for this election.
Moore’s supporters were reminded by Moore’s campaign chairman, Bill Armistead, that military ballots had not yet been counted. Merrill says military ballots will be in no later than next Tuesday, but as for the possibility of those uncounted votes changing the margin enough for an automatic recount, Merrill says chances are very slim.
“Yeah, it’s going to change some, will it change 21 thousand votes? Probably not. ”
The next step for the Secretary of State’s office is to certify votes which includes counting overseas, provisional and possibly write in ballots. These ballots will be certified no earlier than December 26th and no later than January 3rd.
“No matter how many votes are out there, Doug Jones got some of them, judge Moore got some of them. For all of the votes to go to one person, there would be some irregularity or inconsistency and that’s not going to happen” added Merrill.
Moore’s campaign could still chose to have ballots recounted on their own, but they would also have to pay for it completely.
Merrill says the cost of a recount varies depending on the election, but could range well into seven figures.
The last recount initiated by a candidate in a statewide race in Alabama was in the 2010 Republican primary for governor.
Third-place finisher Tim James initiated a recount after finishing 167 votes behind second-place finisher Robert Bentley.
