Voters In Alabama Split As They Go To Polls To Decide State's Next U.S. Senator

Voters in the Alabama are split between Republican candidate Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones in the state's special U.S. Senate election. During this election cycle, Moore has been accused of sexual assault against teenage girls years ago, while Jones is up against a historically red state.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

At some point tonight, we should know who will be Alabama's next U.S. senator, filling the seat that opened when Jeff Sessions became attorney general. The Republican candidate, Roy Moore, was thought to be a shoo-in until reports last month of allegations from several women who say Moore was either inappropriate with them or sexually assaulted them as teenagers. Moore's opponent, Doug Jones, is trying to become the first Democratic U.S. senator to be elected from Alabama in 25 years.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Voters in Alabama are split, and so are some families. Thirty-three-year-old Kimberly Pettit (ph) of Birmingham says she voted for Jones.

KIMBERLY PETTIT: He's a good, decent man. He's had zero scandals. You know, he's been a church man his whole life. He comes from a blue-collar family. You know, and there's been way too many embarrassments coming from Roy Moore - way too many. And I'm tired of the state of Alabama being an embarrassment. So go Doug Jones.

MCEVERS: Her 70-year-old father, Russ Pettit (ph), voted for Moore.

RUSS PETTIT: Innocent until proven guilty. He went 40 years without any scandals, and then all of a sudden before the election, here come all these people popping out of the woodwork. Maybe he did something 40 years ago. And if he did, he was a different person then. But right now I think it's all political.

MCEVERS: And thanks to WBHM for those interviews.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.