Roy Moore Uses Social Media To Attempt To Discredit Election Loss

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Former Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore is not going away quietly after his loss December 12 to Democrat Doug Jones. Moore has yet to concede the election to Jones, first telling his supporters he wanted to wait until all provisional ballots were counted. Now that the overseas ballots, write-ins and other provisional ballots have mostly been counted, Moore cannot mathematically win or force a recount. With that possibility gone, Moore is now attempting to claim voter fraud, which has been debunked by Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill.

Through his Facebook page, Moore has tried to rally his supporters by posting articles implying that Muslim and black voters were the cause of Doug Jones' victory. And in a strange twist, Moore also posted an article from The Advocate featuring Doug Jones' son, Carson, who is gay. Moore and a significant portion of his supporters have been vocal about their anti-LGBT stance, even going so far as to claim homosexuality should be illegal.

Although the Facebook posts were deleted without explanation, CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski took a screenshot of the posts and posted them to Twitter:

Moore supporters have pointed to several conspiracy theories to try to discredit the election. When a video circulated of a Jones supporter allegedly saying, "We came here all the way from different parts of the country as part of our fellowship, and all of us pitched in to vote and canvas together, and we got our boy elected." This implied that people who were not registered to vote in Alabama voted in the state illegally. This video went viral on social media with Moore supporters demanding an investigation.

“After additional research was conducted, it was determined that this young man has lived and worked in Alabama for more than one year and is currently a registered voter in this state,” Merrill, a Republican, said in a statement. “We applaud this young man’s energy, excitement, and enthusiasm for the electoral process and we are always encouraged when we observe Alabamians who are actively engaged in campaigns and elections in our state.”

In a letter to Merrill posted on Moore's official website, Moore campaign chair Bill Armistead said, "I am deeply disturbed by evidence from Bullock County that official sample ballots for next week’s Special Election for United States Senator have been observed in the Probate Judge’s office that were marked for Democrat candidate Doug Jones."

He continued, "Dirty tricks like this undermine public faith in the integrity of our elections, and therefore strike a blow at the legitimacy of our elected officials which is foundational to our representative democracy. They also reveal a serious breach of the security protocols that should protect these and other election materials against fraud and other malicious acts."

Merrill said his office has investigated and stayed on top of voter fraud allegations, and added that he has seen no credible evidence that voter fraud has taken place in this election.

The Alabama Republican Party, Senator Richard Shelby and President Donald Trump have all conceded the election to Jones, but Moore has not. While concession is not necessary for Jones to be sworn into the Senate, such a refusal to concede is unorthodox.

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images