Doug Jones was certified by Alabama's state canvassing board today as the winner of the Dec. 12 special election for the U.S. Senate, despite a last ditch legal challenge by opponent Roy Moore.

Jones issued a statement immediately after the certification.

"I am looking forward to going to work for the people of Alabama in the new year," Jones stated. "As I said on election night, our victory marks a new chapter for our state and the nation. I will be an independent voice and work to find common ground with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get Washington back on track and fight to make our country a better place for all."

The certification by the canvassing board made up of the governor, secretary of state, and attorney general, came after a judge denied Moore's request to halt certification of Jones' win.

Jones' final margin of victory was 21,924 votes, the Secretary of State's office said before the certification began. Official vote tally: Jones, 673,896, or 50 percent. Moore, 651,972, 48.3 percent and write-ins, 22,852, or 1.7 percent.

Jones' margin increased from the unofficial totals reported on election night, when it stood at 20,715.

Jones received 18 write-in votes, while Moore got 14. There were 366 military ballots returned out of 485 issued. There were 2,888 provisional ballots verified out of 4,967 received.

Secretary Merrill is here for Canvassing Board to certify Senate election. Waiting on Gov. Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall, the other two members of the board. #ALSen #alpolitics — Mike Cason (@MikeCasonAL) December 28, 2017

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick issued an order denying Moore's request to halt the certification at 12:26 p.m. Thursday. "The court is of the opinion that it does not have jurisdiction pursuant to Section 17-16-44, Code of Alabama 1975; as amended. It is therefore, ORDERED, ADJUDGED and DECREED that the Motion for Temporary Restraining Order be and is hereby denied. It is further ordered that this matter is hereby dismissed," he stated.

Hardwick's order came less than an hour before the canvassing board met at 1 p.m.

The media is gathering for the official certification in Secretary of State John Merrill's office.

Judge Hardwick order denying Roy Moore request to delay certification of Senate election results. #ALSen #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/3gkVrVpSZu — Mike Cason (@MikeCasonAL) December 28, 2017

Merrill had said this morning on CNN that the 1 p.m. meeting of the state canvassing board will be held as scheduled.

"Doug Jones will be certified today at 2 p.m. eastern time, 1 p.m. central time," Merrill told CNN. "The governor, Kay Ivey, our attorney general Steve Marshall and I will meet in the office of the secretary state, in the executive office, and we will sign the documents certifying him as the senator for the state of Alabama. He will be sworn in by Vice President Pence on the third of January when the Senate returns."

Moore filed a lawsuit late Wednesday seeking to delay certification of the election and claiming "systematic election fraud." Moore had previously declined to concede and has been raising money to investigate reports of voter fraud.

Merrill said today that his office has received 118 complaints of voter fraud in Dec. 12 election and has determined that no fraud occurred in 85 of those instances. Merrill said the others would be investigated.

"We take each and every incident seriously." Merrill said. "We investigate them. If it's warranted, we want to see those people indicted, we want to see them prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Merrill said the four complaints of voter fraud that received the most attention did not occur.

One was an allegation that five busloads of African-Americans were brought into the Mobile area to vote. Another was that three vanloads of people from Mexico were brought to the state, intercepted and arrested. Merrill said neither occurred.

Another concerned suspiciously high turnout at a community near Birmingham that does not exist.

"Somebody just made that up and started circulating it on the Internet," Merrill said.

A fourth concerned a Jones supporter interviewed on a Mobile TV station who talked about people coming from outside the state to support the Jones campaign. Merrill said it was determined that the man was a registered voter who lives in Alabama.

Moore's lawsuit mentions that Jones supporter and says Merrill's office failed to thoroughly investigate his comments.

Merrill was asked if any of the investigations of alleged voter fraud have determined that there was fraud.

"It would be inappropriate for us to comment on anything that's ongoing," Merrill said. "But I will tell you that those four are the top four that we've had and none of those four have been validated. That's probably the most important thing to come out of this conversation."

Merrill was asked if his office has heard from Moore supporters.

"We have had an inordinate number of calls from people who have asked us not to certify the elections today, and hardly any of them that have been introduced to me have offered a reason for non-certification except for the fact that they're disappointed with the results of the election process," Merrill said.

Sam Coleman, a spokesman for the Jones transition team, issued a statement about the Moore lawsuit:

"This desperate attempt by Roy Moore to subvert the will of the people will not succeed," Coleman said. "The election is over, it's time to move on."

This morning, Jones filed a motion to intervene in the case, asserting that he was "an indispensable and/or necessary party" to the litigation. That was followed by a motion by Jones' attorney Joe Espy to dismiss the Moore lawsuit. The motion says, in part, that the lawsuit "has no basis in law."

by slightly more than 20,000 votes according to unofficial results, about 671,000 votes, 49.9 percent, to about 650,000, 48.4 percent. The official totals will include provisional votes, overseas votes and write-in votes.

Merrill's office has previously said there were fewer than 400 overseas ballots returned and fewer than 3,000 provisional ballots verified, not nearly enough to change the outcome.

Updated at 10:43 a.m. to say that Jones has moved to intervene in the lawsuit. Updated at 3:21 p.m. to add more comments from Merrill and edited for clarity.

