Roy Moore loses Senate bid as election board certifies Doug Jones as winner

Update 12/28, 2:16 p.m. ET: Senator-elect Doug Jones has released a statement following the certification of the Dec. 12 special election, saying that "our victory marks a new chapter for our state and the nation."

Jones won the election by 21,924 votes. More than 1.3 million votes were cast, The New York Times reported.

Update 12/28 2:08 p.m. ET: Doug Jones has officially been named the winner of the Dec. 12 special election against Roy Moore. The election was certified by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, Attorney General Steve Marshall and Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, who said the process is pretty routine, a reporter with The Montgomery Advertiser posted on Twitter.

Jones will take the oath of office Jan. 3 once the Senate returns to Washington, CNN reported.

Update 12/28, 1:37 p.m. ET: A judge has denied Roy Moore's request to delay the certification of the Dec. 12 special election results.

Update 12/28, 11:58 a.m. ET: Roy Moore's opponent and winner of the race, Senator-elect Doug Jones has filed a motion to dismiss Moore's lawsuit.

Original story: Roy Moore filed a complaint Wednesday to block the results of Alabama's special Senate election, alleging potential voter fraud, CNN reported.

Moore, a Republican, lost the Senate race on Dec. 12 to Democrat Doug Jones by more than 20,000 votes. Moore has refused to concede and urged a delay in certifying the results, CNN reported.

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill is scheduled to certify the special election results Thursday. But the Moore campaign filed a last-minute complaint, arguing that the certification should be delayed until a “thorough investigation of potential voter fraud” is completed.

Moore and his campaign filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Montgomery, Alabama, listing several allegations and called for “a new special election,” CNN reported.

His complaint alleges that out-of-state residents had been allowed to vote and that election fraud experts had concluded through statistical analyses that fraud had occurred.

Moore's complaint also alleged “anomalous” higher voter turnout in Jefferson County, in which census data shows 43 percent of the population is black. He called the county's 47 percent voter turnout as “highly unusual” and questioned the integrity of its election results.