CNN's Alisyn Camerota: "Do Roy Moore's claims of election fraud have any merit?" Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill: "The short answer to that is no. Doug Jones will be certified today" https://t.co/ZXkfcsTrAq https://t.co/pQxRhhhYJ7

Thursday on CNN’s “New Day,” Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill dismissed a late-night announcement from former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore’s campaign that it had filed a complaint in Circuit Court in Montgomery, AL to halt the certification of the U.S. Senate special election held earlier this month.

Moore, the GOP nominee in that election, was defeated by former Clinton U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee, by a nearly 23,000-vote margin.

Host Alisyn Camerota asked Merrill by phone if Moore’s claims had any merit? Merrill answered no and said the certification would proceed at 1 p.m. CT later today.

“The short answer to that is no,” Merrill said. “Doug Jones will be certified today at 2 p.m. Eastern time, 1 p.m. Central time. The governor, Kay Ivey, our attorney general, Steve Marshall, and I will meet in the office of the secretary of 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.”

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