Polls Close in the Alabama Senate Race at 8 pm EST

• Alabama voters are going to the polls right now to decide between Roy S. Moore, a Republican, and Doug Jones, a Democrat, in a special Senate election destined to be remembered as a strange and ugly campaign carrying immense political implications.


• Mr. Moore’s path to victory in a deeply conservative state has been thrown into doubt over claims of sexual misconduct with teenage girls. If Mr. Jones wins, filling the seat left vacant when President Trump appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general, Republicans would see their Senate advantage dwindle to a single seat, putting their majority in play next year.


• But should Mr. Moore survive, it would illustrate the enduring limitations of Democrats in the South and suggest that the tug of partisanship is a forbiddingly powerful force.


• President Trump, who after initial reluctance following the allegations against Mr. Moore offered a full-throated endorsement, tweeted his support: “Roy Moore will always vote with us.”

• Mr. Jones cast his ballot early. He will need strong turnout from black voters, urban voters and suburban white voters who might normally vote Republican. 

• Mr. Moore rode his horse to the polls. He will need support from rural white voters. Read how his sexual misconduct scandal unfolded.


• Polls fully close in the state at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.



How did the G.O.P. end up with Moore? We take a look.


“For Republicans, it did not have to come to this,” writes Alexander Burns, one of our political reporters. Mr. Moore was never inevitable — read more in our outline of the decisions that Republican leaders made to bring things to this point.

Moore rides Sassy to the polls, cameras in tow.


Mr. Moore emerged from a stand of woods Tuesday astride Sassy, his Tennessee walking horse, about 40 minutes behind schedule. He was wearing a black hat and a grin, and keen to vote.


Gathered for the event at the Gallant Volunteer Fire Department headquarters, journalists and camera operators had expected Mr. Moore to come riding along the road in Gallant, Ala., but when he and his wife, Kayla, instead trotted out of a stand of trees, there was an inelegant scramble for the better angle.


Mr. Moore tied Sassy to a fence and made his way up to the polling place.


He was asked what he would say to his accusers. “I’d say, tell the truth,” he replied.


Eventually Mr. Moore disappeared into the little building, then emerged with an “I Voted” sticker. Reporters asked what his message would be for Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, if he were to win.


“Well, I’m coming to the Senate, and we’ll work out our problems there,” he said.






Source NY Times