On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox News @ Night,” Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R) said that the Alabama Republican Party can formally pull its support for its Senate nominee Judge Roy Moore, and if this happens and Moore still gets the most votes, the election would be null and void.
Merrill said Moore could withdraw from the race, or the state Republican Party could formally pull its support. He further stated that if that happens and Moore receives the most votes, “our election would be declared null and void, and Governor Ivey would have to call another special election, and we’d start the process all over again.”
Merrill commented on the prospect of Governor Ivey delaying the certification of the election results, and said he would be “very surprised,” if this happened, seeing as it would be “unprecedented in the history of the state for that to occur after the results of the people were made known. It would be very unusual.”
He added that Ivey has already changed the election date already, but that was done before the process had begun.
Merrill concluded that if the current seatholder, Senator Luther Strange (R-AL), resigned before the election, “[T]he governor would certainly have to appoint someone to fill that term that Senator Strange is currently completing. Of course, the way that our code reads is that the individual who is in that role would continue to serve until at such a time that the senator was duly elected and duly sworn in to fulfill the commitment as the junior senator from the state of Alabama. So, in the instance that you just described, Senator Strange would no longer be in the picture. However, that individual who was in that role would continue until this election was completed and certified.”
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