Views From Around the State

Published 9:52 am Friday, December 29, 2017

The Cullman Times on Roy Moore not conceding the Dec. 12th special election to fill a U.S. Senate seat:

Roy Moore, brooding in defeat at the hands of a Democrat and the voters of Alabama, is oddly asking for financial donations.

In an email to supporters, Moore’s campaign asked supporters to “dig deep” and donate anywhere from $25 to $1,000 to his “Election Integrity Fund.”

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The fundraising email was sent after Alabama’s secretary of state announced that “the most controversial” issue of potential voter fraud had been resolved after his staff found no evidence of anything improper.

Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican, has a reputation of being thorough concerning voting issues in Alabama. He has investigated issues promptly and also is the architect of registering thousands of Alabamians to vote. With Moore still crying foul about fraud and irregularities in the Dec. 12 special election for the U.S. Senate, it’s become all too clear that the former chief justice simply has too much pride to accept defeat.

Even with calls from within his own party to concede from respected Republicans, Moore is acting like an undisciplined child, moping and whining about the outcome of the election.

From every indication coming from Montgomery and counties across Alabama, solidly in most cases under control of Moore’s Republican Party, there is nothing lingering to change the outcome of the election. Not even enough to barely budge the count.

Alabama’s voting rolls have been through major purges or cleanups through the years. The equipment used by voters has also performed accurately and with few mechanical issues. It’s difficult to understand what Moore envisions as fraud and irregularities.

Frankly, his prolonged holdout over the results of the election mean nothing, other than frustrating Republican voters and leadership who are ready to move on to the upcoming state elections in 2018. Some Republican leaders have also said they will watch Jones closely as he enters the U.S. Senate, hoping that he lives up to the campaign promise of reaching across the aisle to work with Republicans and to respect Alabama’s decades-long conservative voting record.

Jones has been a gracious winner. He knows well that Alabama is widely known for conservative values and has voted Republican heavily in the elections of the last 20-plus years. In essence, he respects the Republican Party and conservative Alabamians more than Moore, who seems to care only for himself.

Once the votes are certified, Jones will be declared the official winner and journey to Washington to take a seat in the Senate alongside Alabama’s distinguished senior Sen. Richard Shelby, a man who has served with dignity and effectiveness for Alabama.

Moore, who continues to showboat and whimper about the election results, will soon fade to the shadows of politics past.