The Alabama Supreme Court Decided Not to Preserve Electronic Ballot Records
On December 11, after a hotly contested vote, a court in Montgomery (Alabama’s capital city) specifically asked for the digital images of the ballots to be kept. These would have been essential in a recount. However, at the last minute, the Alabama State Supreme Court basically ordered election officials to discard the electronic ballot records in the race to the Senate between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones. (Source: “Alabama court gives last-minute order that could impede recount procedure,” The Guardian, December 12, 2017.)
Alabama is one of the last states in the Union that should allow itself that kind of privilege. The state has a questionable history of electoral transparency. The State Courts have been reluctant to intervene to verify results. But, Priscilla Duncan, the lawyer for the plaintiffs suing the state, has argued that eliminating the ballots also makes it harder to detect the possibility of tampering with the ballots. Besides, as noted by an experienced election lawyer, Christopher Sautter, there’s no practical or cost-saving advantage to erasing the electronic records. “It amounts to flipping a switch.” (Source: Ibid.)
Alabama will keep the actual paper ballots for 22 months as it is legally required to do by law. (Source: “Voter suppression in Alabama: what’s true and what’s not,” Vox, December 12, 2017.)
But that is like rowing the boat across the ocean instead of flying. The electronic ballots might also help resolve a very real dispute. It’s true that the Democratic candidate for the Senate, Doug Jones, did not face the strongest of candidates, even if the state remains a bastion of conservatism.
Roy Moore Faced an Uphill Battle Against Himself
Allegations against Moore over sexual improprieties with minors hurt his chances and prompted some Republicans themselves to deprive him of support. Sen. John Boozman, (R-Arkansas) is but one Republican southern senator who has asked Roy Moore to withdraw from the race. (Source: “Where Republican senators stand on Roy Moore,” CNN, December 12, 2017.)
Nevertheless, the final results are too close to call, given that Doug Jones won 49.9% of the vote compared to Moore’s 48.4%. The difference was about 20,000 votes. Yet, Alabama law provides for an automatic recount if a candidate should win by a margin so small as to be less than half a percentage point. Even if the margin was higher, it was “just barely” higher. This certainly raises suspicions. If not an automatic recount, the state should at least have kept records; especially as it would not have cost anything.
Moreover, the campaign itself was vicious. It was akin to a reality TV spectacle. That said, however strongly Donald Trump may have supported Moore, when Doug Jones won, the president expressed support.
Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2017
That means, even in the case of a recount, there’s little chance of blaming Trump or getting him involved in any way.
Now, Moore is still hanging on to the possibility of winning. Trump thinks Moore should give up and concede. But Moore thinks he can still count on 20,716 votes. He’s fighting tooth and nail to hope and some have compared his campaign to a crusade. (Source: “Why Roy Moore just won’t concede,” CNN Politics, December 15, 2017.)
At the same time, Moore—on a crusade or not—has not taken into account the Richard Shelby factor. Shelby might be considered the leading Republican figure in Alabama. He first ran for public office (and won) in 1971 and remains one of the leading southern senators. It was Shelby, speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, who said he’d rather have a write-in candidate win than vote for Roy Moore as “the state of Alabama deserves better.” (Source: “Alabama Sen. Shelby: ‘I couldn’t vote for Roy Moore’,” CNN Politics, December 10, 2017.)
As of December 15, Roy Moore has yet to concede the vote to his rival Doug Jones. Moore may be stubborn, but it still fails to explain why the state ordered the electronic votes to be discarded. Keeping the records would not hurt Doug Jones; Moore has lost all major support. But keeping the ballots would have removed the shadow that now casts an uncomfortable feeling over the vote.