The special election for the Senate seat in Alabama turned out to be a close one on Tuesday night with just a 20,715 vote difference between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore.
With that close of a margin of victory and 22,819 write-in votes, it’s possible that one man made the difference, however unlikely. But if any one man could do it, it’s Nick Saban. (RELATED: The Dark Horse Candidate That Could Derail The Alabama Senate Election)
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
A few days before the election a liberal group called American Bridges released a video with step-by-step instructions on how to write-in a candidate for Tuesday’s election using Saban as an example. With the widespread support that the University of Alabama football coach has across the state, it’s not hard to imagine that some voters wrote his name in. Thanks to an Alabama state law, we may find out if Saban’s votes made a difference very soon, according to SB Nation.
Here’s guidance from Alabama secretary of state on counting write-ins pic.twitter.com/rLhDe6NtwW
— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) December 12, 2017
According to the law, specific write-in votes are only counted when the total number of write-in votes is larger than the margin of victory between the winning candidate and the second place candidate, which was the case in this election.
So all we can do is wait now. Even if Saban didn’t derail the election single-handedly, it’s clear that the write-in votes had a big impact on the election results. President Trump even thinks so.
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
But, like he said, “a win is a win.”