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Politics: Jones Wins Upset in Alabama Senate Race

posted by martyb on Wednesday December 13 2017, @08:06PM   
from the It's-Fake-News-until-the-Fat-Man-Sings dept.

Fluffeh writes:

Democrat Doug Jones won a remarkable upset victory over controversial rival Roy Moore in the diehard Republican state of Alabama on Tuesday to win election to the US Senate.

By a margin of 49.5 to 48.9 with 91% of precincts reporting, Jones dealt a major blow to Donald Trump and his efforts to pass tax reform on Capitol Hill. Jones was able to become the first Democrat in a decade to win any statewide office in Alabama by beating Moore, who had faced multiple allegations of sexual assault during a campaign which exposed Republican party faultlines.

The Democratic victory will reduce the Republican majority in the Senate to 51-49 once Jones takes his seat on Capitol Hill. This significantly reduces the margin for error as Republicans attempt to push through a major corporate tax cut.

takyon: The final count is:

Doug Jones - 671,151 votes (49.9%)
Roy Moore - 650,436 votes (48.4%)
Write-ins (total) - 22,819 votes (1.7%)

The margin for an automatic recount in Alabama is 0.5%. Roy Moore has yet to concede.

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Original Submission

• ballots ballots (Score: 2) by crafoo on Thursday December 14 2017, @01:39AM (1 child)

  by crafoo (6639) on Thursday December 14 2017, @01:39AM (#609532)

  Is it true they are destroying the electronic ballots in Alabama?

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• ''[are they] destroying the electronic ballots''? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 14 2017, @10:17PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 14 2017, @10:17PM (#609917)

  We were on this in rDT's journal. [soylentnews.org]

  The voting machines they use in Alabama can be configured to make it easy to do a recount of the ballots.

  The Repugs were so confident that they were going to win that they got their brethren in the state judiciary to do them a solid and NOT require a copy be kept of each paper ballot fed into the counting machines.

  In final-hour order, court rules that Alabama can destroy digital voting records after all [al.com]

  At 1:36 p.m. Monday, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge issued an order directing Alabama election officials to preserve all digital ballot images created at polling places across the state today.

  But at 4:32 p.m. Monday, attorneys for Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and Ed Packard, the state administrator of elections, filed an "emergency motion to stay" that order, which the state Supreme Court granted minutes after Merrill and Packard's motion was filed.

  By granting the stay, the court effectively told the state that it does not in fact have to preserve the digital ballot images--essentially digitized versions of the paper ballots voters fill out at the voting booth--created today.

  The court will hold a hearing on Dec. 21 about whether to dismiss the case outright. By that point the state will have had ample time to destroy the digital ballot images legally under the stay.

  -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  Parent