Alabama’s closely watched U.S. Senate race is a neck-and-neck contest as voter concerns about personal moral conduct weigh on the candidacy of Republican Roy Moore, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll.

With less than two weeks to go, support for Democrat Doug Jones among likely voters stands at 50 per cent versus Moore’s 47 per cent — a margin of a scant three percentage points that sets up a nail-biter for the Dec. 12 special election.

The survey shows that allegations of improper sexual behavior against Moore, a former Alabama chief justice, hang heavily over a race that would favor a Republican under ordinary circumstances in this deeply conservative state.

Fifty-three per cent of voters say Jones, a former federal prosecutor, has higher standards of personal moral conduct than Moore. In contrast, about a third of likely voters say Moore, who has cast his campaign as a “spiritual battle” with heavy religious overtones, has higher moral standards.

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Among the 1 in 4 voters who say the candidates’ moral conduct will be the most important factor in how they vote, Jones leads, 67 per cent to 30 percent. And Jones, whose strategy relies in part on peeling away Republican support from Moore, has the backing of 1 in 6 GOP-leaning likely voters. About 1 in 14 Democratic-leaning voters back Moore.

The race, in which the winner will fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when he became attorney general, has taken on national importance because of its implications for the Republican majority in the Senate. If Jones wins, the GOP will control the chamber by 51 seats to 49.

Moore led Jones in most public polls before allegations became widely known last month, but support for Moore fell sharply afterward, with a mid-November Fox News poll showing him falling behind Jones by eight points. More recent automated surveys have found Moore regaining a slight edge.

The Post-Schar School poll was conducted Monday to Thursday by the research firm Abt Associates among a sample of 739 likely voters and carries a 4.5-point margin of sampling error. To avoid influencing the answers of respondents who have opinions about The Post’s coverage of allegations against Moore, interviewers disclosed The Post’s sponsorship of the survey only at the end of the interviews.

The survey shows that the Alabama electorate is divided on the validity of the allegations against Moore. While 35 per cent of likely voters think Moore did make unwanted advances toward teenage girls, 37 per cent say they are unsure or have no opinion. The smallest group — 28 per cent of likely voters — says Moore did not make the advances that were alleged.

“On the allegations, they have made an impact. There is no doubt,” said Mark Rozell, the dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. “Anybody with an R next to their name should be comfortably ahead in this state.”

A sizable share of Alabama’s Republican-leaning voters are clearly torn over the choice before them as they weigh their concerns about Moore against their desire to see Alabama send another Republican to the Senate.

Less than half, 44 per cent, of likely voters say they would prefer to see a Democrat representing Alabama in the Senate, while 50 per cent of likely voters say they favor electing a Republican.

Others say that they are unlikely to vote because they dislike both candidates. “I’m fed up. A lot of people are down here,” said Terry Anderson, 54, of Hartford, Ala. Anderson is an independent who participated in the poll and said he was not going to vote. “I think I’ll just let it all fall out on its own.”

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Several women have accused Moore, 70, of initiating unwanted sexual encounters with them, mostly when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. Leigh Corfman told The Post that she was 14 at the time of the alleged encounter. Moore has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct, arguing that he is the victim of a political conspiracy by Republicans, Democrats, the news media, socialists and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people “who want to change our culture.”

At the same time, Moore has not ruled out that he dated teenagers with their parents’ permission when he was in his 30s. “If I did, I’m not going to dispute these things, but I don’t remember anything like that,” Moore said on Sean Hannity’s radio show Nov. 10 in response to claims that he had dated 17- or 18-year-old girls.

Correction – December 4, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version to update a headline that misspelled Roy Moore’s surname.