WASHINGTON — Although Alabama law prohibits a nominee from withdrawing his or her name from an election ballot 76 days before voters go to the polls, write-in candidates have no deadlines.
A woman told the Washington Post in an article published Thursday that Republican U.S. Senate nominee Roy Moore initiated a sexual encounter with her when she was 14 years old and he was 32. Senate Republicans have called for Moore to leave the race if the claims are true. Moore and his campaign vociferously denied the accusations, calling the charges “fake news.”
Luther Strange *is* eligible as a write-in. The “sore loser” law does not prevent primary election losers from running as general election write-in candidates. From the Alabama SOS page: https://t.co/DohrR02svX pic.twitter.com/SvSxe6dTwh
— Derek T. Muller (@derektmuller) November 9, 2017
Moore’s primary opponent, Alabama Republican Sen. Luther Strange, was asked if he would run a write-in campaign if Moore drops out of the race for the Dec. 12 special election.
“They’ve just come to light and I’ve just read about them. It’s very, very disturbing what I’ve read about. And I’ll have more to say about it I’m sure after I learn more,” Strange told reporters Thursday. He declined to say if he would run as a write in.
Sen. Luther Strange calls allegations against Roy Moore, who defeated him in a primary runoff, “very, very disturbing,” but declines to say whether he’d run as a write-in candidate if Moore withdrew from the race. pic.twitter.com/M70ghHNpXS
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) November 9, 2017
Although a difficult feat to pull off, write-in candidates have been successful in the past. Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski lost the 2010 primary to Joe Miller but came back in the general as write-in candidate and beat Miller, who was the Republican nominee. The Daily Caller reached out to Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks and asked if he would launch a write-in campaign and is waiting to hear back from Brooks’s office.