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Alabama election results – live updates: Roy Moore hints at recount and asks supporters to pray for him Alabama election results – live updates: Roy Moore hints at recount and asks supporters to pray for him
(about 2 hours later)
Polls will shortly close in Alabama as part of a special election that pits Democrat Doug Jones against Roy Moore, a Republican candidate dogged by sexual misconduct allegations. Doug Jones, the man who made his name prosecuting two former Ku Klux Klan members who bombed a black church, has won a stunning victory in the senate race in Alabama - the first Democrat to win such a seat in the state for 25 years.
The race is neck-and-neck despite the state's strong conservative leanings, with Mr Moore denying the claims of eight women who say he harassed them - including one allegation involving a child aged 14.  In doing so, the 63-year prosecutor, who just weeks ago was trailing Republican Roy Moore by double digits in the polls, also delivered a humiliating blow to Donald Trump, who had mocked Mr Jones and endorsed his opponent. It also reduces the Republican majority in the Senate to 51-49, complicating Mr trump's efforts to push his legislative agenda.
Polls close at 7pm local time/8pm ET/1am GMT, with results expected to start coming in soon afterwards. Mr Jones’s fortunes increased sharply after Mr Moore’s campaign was rocked by allegations that he sexually assaulted and abused young girls and women when he was was aged in 30s and working as a local prosecutor. 
And speaking at a rally on the eve of the election last night, Mr Moore told supporters: "If you don't believe in my character, don't vote for me." Many of his followers simply don't believe the abuse allegations or say they have been blown out of proportion, and he retains the support of the Republican party and the President, Donald Trump. Mr Moore denied the allegations and dismissed them as an attempt to undermine his campaign, but they appeared sufficient to either lead some Republicans to vote for Mr Jones or else to enable the Democrat to  persuade a sufficient number of his potential supporters to actually go out and cast their ballots for him. 
But at his own rally on Monday night Mr Jones said the election was a referendum on "who we are and what we're going to tell our daughters". He was joined by basketball star Charles Barkley, who said it was "amazing" Mr Moore was still in the race and the state risked "looking like idiots to the nation". On Tuesday night, as news of Mr Jones stunning upset sank in, not just among the political class but across the country. Mr Trump offered measured congratulations.
Mr Jones, for his own part, has been attacked as a liberal who would not properly represent a state that hasn't elected a Democrat senator for 30 years. "Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends," he said.
Mr Jones acknowledged in Montgomery: "Look, I'm not going to be the senator that everybody in the state can agree with 100 per cent of the time." But he added: "They'll know I'm somebody that will sit down with them. I will learn from them. ... I will try to be the public servant I think a US senator ought to be."  However Mr Moore and his campaign told supporters that the race is "not over" as the Republican refused to concede defeat, holding out hope of a recount in a tight race. However, that appeared unlikely, with results putting Mr Jones ahead by 1.5 per cent.
Tuesday's vote is being held to find a replacement for Jeff Sessions, who was selected as Attorney General by President Donald Trump. If the result was a huge embarrassment for the President it was a similar blow for his former strategist, Steve Bannon, who had become one of Mr Moore’s most outspoken supporters and who was hoping to use what he believed would be a victory in Alabama, to drive the momentum for similar so-called insurgent campaigns in 2018.
Doug Jones has told supporters that his campaign is a chance to be on the “right side of history for the state of Alabama.”
“Judge Moore has been consistently wrong about the Constitution,” Mr Jones said to reporters after casting his ballot at a Baptist church in Birmingham. “I don't think Roy Moore is going to win this election.”
If Mr Jones wins on Tuesday, Republicans would control the Senate by a slim 51-49 margin, giving Democrats momentum ahead of the November 2018 congressional elections, when control of both chambers of Congress will be at stake.