Roy Moore Refuses To Concede & Has Filed A Voter Fraud Complaint

Update: Alabama certified Doug Jones' victory this afternoon. An Alabama circuit judge denied Roy Moore's election complaint.

Embattled politician Roy Moore has not only refused to concede the December 12 Alabama Senate special election, in which Doug Jones defeated him, but is denying allegations against him of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls.

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill confirmed to CNN that Democrat Jones will be certified as the winner today. But Moore has filed a lawsuit to block certification of the election results, according to CNN.

Moore, a socially conservative Republican, said in a press release that Merrill should delay certification until there has been a "thorough investigation of potential election fraud." He and his campaign filed the complaint in the Circuit Court of Montgomery, AL, calling for "a new special election."

Merrill, a Republican, told CNN this morning that Moore's complaint will not delay Jones' certification. "Will this affect anything?" he said. "The short answer to that is no."

A spokesperson for Jones' campaign called the move a "desperate attempt by Roy Moore to subvert the will of the people [that] will not succeed," according to ABC News. "The election is over; it's time to move on."

In the document, Moore alleges that election-fraud experts have found fraudulent activity, such as out-of-state residents voting. But one of the experts he cited is Richard Charnin, whose claim to fame is JFK conspiracy theories. He also said that the 47% voter turnout in Jefferson County (which is 43% Black) is "highly unusual." Of course, Jones' narrow victory was largely credited to Black women, 98% of whom voted for him (compared to only 35% of white women).

In an affidavit included in the complaint, Moore also defended himself against the multiple sexual assault allegations against him, saying he took a polygraph test and "the results of the examination reflected that I did not know, nor had I ever had any sexual contact with, any of these individuals." He said the allegations were "false and malicious attacks on my character."

Many experts have questioned the scientific validity of polygraph tests.

Jones is the first Democrat since 1992 to win a Senate seat in Alabama, beating Moore by more than 20,000 votes.