Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill's office notified counties today that they must tabulate write-in votes in last Tuesday's special election for the U.S. Senate.

The notification is one step in the process of certifying Tuesday's vote.

State law requires counties to tabulate the write-in votes unless the number of write-ins is fewer than the deciding margin in the race.

According to results as of today, Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore by 20,625 votes, Merrill's office said, a margin of 1.5 percent. There were 22,814 write-in votes, or 1.7 percent of the total.

Moore has not conceded the race.

On Tuesday, county canvassing boards will count provisional ballots and overseas ballots. Counties must publicly declare the results by noon on Friday and report them to the secretary of state.

The state canvassing board, which includes Merrill, Gov. Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall, will certify the results no earlier than Dec. 26 and no later than Jan. 3, Secretary of State John Merrill said.

State law requires an automatic recount if a race is decided by 0.5 percentage points or less. The unofficial results put Jones' margin of victory at 1.5 percentage points, with provisional and overseas ballots still to be counted.

Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis said 30 registered voters would be appointed to count the write-in votes. In a press release, Davis said the counting would begin Tuesday morning at the Mobile County Government Center Annex on Government Street.

This story was edited at 4:18 p.m. to say that the winning margin for Jones was 20,625 votes, as shown in the county breakdown below.

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