Alabama votes after vicious contest dogged by claims against candidate

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, USA – It’s been framed by Donald Trump’s opponents as a contest between a Democrat and a man accused of preying on teenaged girls, but for the people of Alabama this week’s special election isn’t quite that simple.

The Republican candidate is Roy Moore, a former state judge known for his battles to publicly display the Ten Commandments, but who has recently made headlines over accusations that he pursued girls as young as 14 when he was in his 30s.

Voters on Tuesday, December 12, can choose Moore or his Democratic opponent Doug Jones, a former federal prosecutor. Or they could shun both by writing the name of another candidate not listed on the ballot – a move that could split the Republican vote and help Jones.

Alabama has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since 1992, and a Jones win would reduce the already-slim Republican majority in the upper house of Congress from 52 to 51 seats out of 100.

In Alabama, a southern state where Trump won 62% of the vote, voting for a Democrat is unthinkable for many Republicans, and many Christian conservatives see the allegations against Moore as part of a grand conspiracy hatched by liberals to destroy their champion.

Leading the charge are members of Moore’s own family, who were on Sunday attending a service at the First Baptist Church in Gallant where the candidate has been a regular for 25 years.

“It’s all a bunch of lies,” his sister Nancy Barksdale, a 64-year-old homemaker told Agence France-Presse. “This is dirty politics. It’s been 40 years, and you know nothing’s ever come out until this election,” she added.

“He is one of the most godly men I know,” chimed in Moore’s youngest sister Toni Martin, 58.

‘Get it over with’

Multiple women have come forward to accuse Moore of pursuing them when they were teenagers, including one who said he groped her when she was 14 and another who said he assaulted her at age 16.

Yet even those who believe some of the allegations against Moore say it’s not enough for them to withdraw their support.

For Ann Wright, a 69-year-old retiree living in a suburb of Birmingham, the answer is Moore. “I’m sorry, but just to keep the Democrats out,” she said is her reasoning.

People “probably think Alabama is terrible, and they go around saying, ‘Oh, you voted for a pedophile.’ Well, it really hasn’t been proven yet,” she added.

“During that period of time, there were teenage girls that were dating older men,” said Wright, noting that: “I had people in my high school that dated guys in their twenties.”

Other Republicans have expressed similar sentiments, and while Moore plunged in the polls after the initial revelations, he has come back slightly ahead.

For those voters who believe the accusations against Moore, there is a third option aside from him or Jones: write in another candidate.

That’s what 70-year-old retired teacher Laura Strubel, who opposes Jones’ stance in favor of a woman’s right to have an abortion, plans to do.

The election and the surrounding controversy is “crazy” and she is “ready to get it over with,” Strubel said.

On Sunday, December 10, Alabama Senator Richard Shelby told CNN he had already cast his ballot for another fellow Republican.

“I couldn’t vote for Roy Moore.  I didn’t vote for Roy Moore.  But I wrote in a distinguished Republican name,” he said.

Democrats boosted

Gadsden, the mall where Moore reportedly pursued teenaged girls, is still there, crowded ahead of the Christmas holiday.

It’s not hard to find people who know Moore, such as Linda Fain, a librarian who said she went out several times with him and his wife.

“He’s a good man,” she said, while “the ladies that have come forward are not so truthful.”

But some young people are not as indulgent.

At a hair salon, Emma Howell, the 21-year-old manager, rolls her eyes at the mention of Moore, saying he has broken the habitual Republican vote among her generation.

“People are realizing that they don’t have to vote Republican,” Howell said.

It is undeniable that Moore has boosted enthusiasm for Democrats, an endangered species in significant parts of the southern US.

Steve Bannon, former chief White House strategist and ardent Moore supporter, presents the election as a choice between Trump and his 2016 presidential election rival Hillary Clinton.

The political risk explains why Trump, after sitting on the fence, threw his support behind Moore, saying Republicans “cannot afford” to lose the Senate seat.

Democrats know that defeating Moore is a near impossible mission, but as Jones noted, it was just as unlikely that it would snow in early December in Birmingham, which was veiled in white on Saturday, December 9.

“Now is the time for change,” Jones told a campaign rally, saying Moore “has been a disaster for the face of Alabama already.” – Rappler.com