--- title: Roy Moore Still Trying to Win Alabama Senate Seat Election description: A complaint filed on behalf of Moore alleges voter fraud in the Alabama special election against Doug Jones. But that won't change anything. canonical: https://time.com/5081308/roy-moore-doug-jones-complaint/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-28T17:14:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T23:18:24.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Roy Moore Is Still Trying to Win a Senate Seat. But Nothing He Does Will Matter og:description: 'No change has occurred. Doug Jones will be certified,' an election official tells TIME og:url: https://time.com/5081308/roy-moore-doug-jones-complaint/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebb8a9b1ef130509/6988f6a022fb85f51ee243ad/roy-moore1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: Roy Moore og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Roy Moore Is Still Trying to Win a Senate Seat. But Nothing He Does Will Matter twitter:description: 'No change has occurred. Doug Jones will be certified,' an election official tells TIME twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebb8a9b1ef130509/6988f6a022fb85f51ee243ad/roy-moore1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Roy Moore Is Still Trying to Win a Senate Seat. But Nothing He Does Will Matter > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=2c4d5485-75da-424c-a509-6c00ad4aad10&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Roy Moore's Campaign Spokeswoman on Voter Fraud [Watch (HLS stream): Roy Moore's Campaign Spokeswoman on Voter Fraud](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pttYYpFB.m3u8) (1:32)  _Published 2017-12-28. Janet Porter speaks to CNN's Dana Bash about the contested results of the Alabama Senate election_  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:18 PM UTCPublished: Dec 28, 2017 5:14 PM UTC Janet Porter speaks to CNN's Dana Bash about the contested results of the Alabama Senate election  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:18 PM UTCPublished: Dec 28, 2017 5:14 PM UTC Republican Roy Moore is doing everything he can to stop Democrat Doug Jones from being certified as the winner of a special election in Alabama to fill an open seat in the U.S. Senate, but his efforts were unable to prevent officials from acknowledging Jones’ victory on Thursday. Early Wednesday morning, a complaint was filed on behalf of Moore alleging voter fraud had occurred in the December 12 Senate election. The complaint was filed less than 24 hours before Alabama election officials certified Jones as the victor, paving the way for his swearing-in to the Senate next month. Doug Jones’ campaign subsequently filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. And on Thursday afternoon, Alabama Circuit Judge Hardwick rejected the complaint from the Moore campaign. But even before the judge had dismissed the case and Jones’s victory was certified, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said the complaint would have no impact on the election’s result. “No change has occurred. Doug Jones will be certified at 1 p.m. this afternoon,” Merrill told TIME before the certification took place. Merrill added that Jones will officially be sworn into the Senate by Vice President Mike Pence on January 3. In a statement following his victory’s certification on Thursday, Jones said he is “looking forward to going to work for the people of Alabama in the new year.” “As I said on election night, our victory marks a new chapter for our state and the nation. I will be an independent voice and work to find common ground with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get Washington back on track and fight to make our country a better place for all,” Jones said. Seemingly unwilling to accept his opponent’s now-certified victory, Moore issued a statement late Thursday calling the election “fraudulent.” “Election fraud experts across the country have agreed that this was a fraudulent election,” said Jones in a statement. Moore’s campaign did not clarify whether the statement constituted a concession. According to unofficial election results, Moore lost the race to Jones by 1.5 percentage points. Roy Moore, already controversial for his comments about groups like Muslims and LGBT individuals, lost the Alabama special election after nine women came forward accusing him of sexual misconduct. Some of the women said they were teenagers when the alleged incidents occurred. Moore has denied any wrongdoing. The campaign has said that the complaint filed Wednesday includes an affidavit from Moore saying he had undergone a polygraph proving the truth of his denials. Gloria Allred, an attorney representing Beverly Nelson Young, who had alleged Moore sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager, said Moore’s attempts to discredit the victims would not work. “The people of Alabama have spoken and Moore lost. We are proud of the Alabama voters who believed the women,” Allred wrote in an e-mail to TIME. “Moore’s desperate efforts to challenge this election and cast doubt on Beverly and the other women who allege that they were victims were and will continue to be unsuccessful.” ## Transcript [00:00] Why do you believe that the Alabama Secretary of State [00:03] at the 11th hour is going to take the evidence that you [00:07] put in this court document, much of which alleges voter [00:11] irregularities that he has already dismissed, that he will [00:14] change his mind now? Well there's two reasons. By the [00:17] way, it's not just Judge Moore on this case it's actually [00:19] voters of Alabama that are also listed as plaintiffs on [00:22] the case. And it's his job to follow the Supreme court [00:25] ruling that make sure that every vote is cast that we [00:29] know that it is counted accurately. And we have [00:32] evidence of fraud from three, and yes they are [00:34] experts. One gentlemen has three degrees in [00:37] mathmatmatics. He's written four books on election [00:39] fraud and he confirms that there's enough votes [00:42] Enough fraud that took place in just one county to [00:45] change the outcome of this election. It is the job of [00:48] John Merrill to make sure that the elections are free [00:50] and proper, and that they're fair. And this is something [00:54] that people who care about fair and free elections [00:57] should call the Secretary of State at 334- 242- 7200 [00:58] and let him [01:02] know we don't want you to certify a fraudulent vote. [01:04] Investigate it. If you think Doug Jones won, well, let's [01:07] make sure of it. Let's make sure we get to the bottom [01:10] of what these experts says is clear evidence of fraud. [01:12] And, in fact, this gentleman that I talked about with all [01:14] of the degrees, he said there is a 1 in 15 billion [01:18] chance That this vote that happened in [ INAUDIBLE ] in [01:22] Jefferson county occurred naturally. In other words, this [01:25] election was fraudulent, and what we need to do is ask [01:28] the secretary of state to do his job, and to investigate [01:32] this. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5081308/roy-moore-doug-jones-complaint/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5081308/roy-moore-doug-jones-complaint/"},"headline":"Roy Moore Is Still Trying to Win a Senate Seat. But Nothing He Does Will Matter","datePublished":"2017-12-28T17:14:33.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T23:18:24.000Z","description":"'No change has occurred. 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