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This Is When We'll Know If Roy Moore Has Won His Race

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On Tuesday, the special election to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions' vacant Senate seat will take place in Alabama. The race, between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones, has received a great deal of attention due to the spate of allegations of sexual misconduct against Roy Moore (allegations which Moore has denied, calling them "ritual defamation"). Because Moore's candidacy has garnered so much controversial much attention, many Americans will likely be eagerly awaiting the results of Alabama's Senate race and wondering what time they will be revealed. If all goes according to plan, the country should know who the next Alabaman senator is by the end of Tuesday night.

Sessions, a Republican, vacated his Senate seat back in February, after he was confirmed as Attorney General. Following Sessions' departure, the Democratic and Republican parties held primaries to nominate candidates to run in Tuesday's special election, resulting in the nomination of Jones and Moore, respectively.

As CNN reported, polls for the special Senate election open at 7 a.m. Central Standard Time (CST) on Tuesday. Polls will close at 7 p.m. CST, so precincts will likely begin reporting results shortly after this time. Unless there is a problem with voting and/or the race is too close to call, Americans should know the results of the race by sometime on Tuesday evening.

CNN also noted, that, due to the controversy over Moore's candidacy and a perceived exasperation with the Senate race, low turnout is expected, particularly among Republicans. Moreover, special elections generally have a much lower turnout than their standard counterparts, also contributing to the expectation that only a limited number of people will show up to the polls on Tuesday.

Moore's controversial candidacy has elicited mixed levels of support from his own Republican party — and complete condemnation from Democrats. President Donald Trump recorded a robocall to show his support for Moore ahead of the elections. In the recording, Trump offers his unabashed support of the candidate.

We need Roy voting for us. ... I am stopping illegal immigration and crime. We're building a stronger military and protecting the Second Amendment and our pro-life values. But if Alabama elects liberal Democrat Doug Jones, all of our progress will be stopped cold. We already know Democrat Doug Jones is a puppet of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, and he will vote with the Washington liberals every single time.

Other Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have been much more reluctant to support Moore. McConnell and some of his Republican colleagues had previously called on Moore to exit the race, citing the concerning nature of the allegations against him.

While McConnell seemed to appear more lax about his condemnation of Moore on Sunday, saying he was "going to let the people of Alabama make the call," he again reiterated his concern about Moore's candidacy on Tuesday. As TIME reported, McConnell noted that "there's been no change of heart."

I had hoped earlier that he would withdraw as a candidate, and obviously it’s not going to happen. If he were to be elected, he would immediately have an ethics committee case, and the committee would take a look at the situation and give us advice.

For his part, Jones has been attempting to pull together a voter coalition in an attempt to beat Moore — who, despite the allegations against him, has been leading the special election race in the conservative state in every public poll released in the last week. As Slate reported, Jones is particularly focused on increasing voter turnout and reaching out to African American voters, whose support is reportedly crucial for Jones to secure a victory over Moore.

The Hill reported that the most recent Gravis marketing poll, conducted from Dec. 5 and Dec. 8, finds that Moore has 49 percent of voters' support in the Alabama Senate race, while Jones has 45 percent of this support. The most recent Real Clear Politics average of polls also indicates that Moore has a 3.8 point lead over Jones.

Overall, the special election race between Moore and Jones is clearly not only incredibly close, but also very mired in controversy. Much of America will likely be closely watching to see how exactly the election unfolds, anxiously awaiting results as they begin to arrive on Tuesday evening.