It’s time for failed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore to follow Elsa’s advice and just Let. It. Go. Despite his last minute lawsuit challenging the election, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill has certified the election results, declaring Democrat Doug Jones the winner.

In an appearance on CNN earlier today, Alisyn Camerota asked Merrill if there was “any merit” to Moore’s allegations of election fraud.

“Will this affect anything?” replied Merrill. “The short answer to that is no. Doug Jones will be certified today at 2 pm Eastern Time, 1 pm Central Time.”

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

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 28, 2017

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick issued an order earlier today denying Moore’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have halted the election certification.

AL.com confirmed that Jones was certified the winner a few minutes ago. The final vote tally was 673,896 (50%) for Jones, 651,972 (48.3% for Moore), and 22,852 (1.7%) write-ins, making Jones’ final margin of victory 21,924 votes.

Other information from AL.com reporter Mike Cason showed that there was no mathematical way for Moore’s lawsuit to succeed. None of the complaints of voter fraud were found to have merit, and even if every single provisional ballot and military ballot was a vote for Moore, it still wouldn’t have been enough to overcome Jones’ margin of victory.

Secretary of State John Merrill says his office has received 118 complaints of voter fraud in Dec. 12 election and has determined that no fraud occurred in 85 of those instances. 33 others still pending. #ALSen #alpolitics

— Mike Cason (@MikeCasonAL) December 28, 2017

Other numbers from final totals. Jones received 18 write-in votes, while Moore got 14. There were 366 military ballots returned out of 485 issued. There were 2,888 provisional ballots verified out of 4,967 received. #ALSen

— Mike Cason (@MikeCasonAL) December 28, 2017

According to Merrill, Jones will be sworn in to the Senate by Vice President Pence on January 3.

This post has been updated to fix a typo. It was Merrill, not Moore, who was on CNN earlier. 

Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter: @rumpfshaker.