Giddy up Sassy! Accused pedophile Roy Moore takes his HORSE to vote as Alabama Senate race goes down to the wire

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Republican candidate Roy Moore, an accused pedophile, displayed a bit of pageantry as he arrived at his polling place in Gallant, Alabama, Tuesday – trotting in on top of his horse, 'Sassy.'  

In the past, he's suggested the election day ride has brought him a bit of good luck. 

'I think it's a good thing to do, I won the last time I rode a horse,' he told reporters, referring to August, when he creamed Sen. Luther Strange in the GOP primary race.

He may need it: pollsters are unable to project who will win in what should be ultra-safe Republican territory, and say the outcome is most likely to be decided by turnout.

If it comes close to presidential elections turnout levels, Moore will lose, but if it is more like a normal off-year election, Democrat Doug Jones will be defeated.

The Democrat, who is up 10 points in one poll and down nine in another – showing the sheer impossibility of predicting the electorate in this race – didn't want to fathom the possibility of a loss. 

'I don't think Roy Moore is going to win this election,' Jones said as he cast his vote in Mountain Brook.

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Embattled Senate candidate Roy Moore rides 'Sassy' the horse to his polling location as he votes for himself in today's special election in Alabama

Roy Moore (left) and Kayla Moore (right) leave their Gallant, Alabama polling station after casting votes in today's special election 

Republican Senate hopeful is interviewed by reporters as he approaches his polling location in Gallant, Alabama

Roy Moore showed up on horseback and wearing a cowboy hat as he gave himself a vote in today's Alabama special election 

Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore is seen arriving at his polling place Tuesday on Sassy, his horse

Riding into electoral battle: Roy Moore made his way to the polling station in Gallant, Alabama, on Sassy

Long way down: Roy and Kayla Moore took a long scenic route to vote on Tuesday. But the bitter election has been marked by accusations he preyed on teenage girls and was anti-Semitic

Roy Moore and Sassy (right) rode to the polling place alongside his wife Kayla, who was also riding a horse 

Roy and Kayla Moore showed up to their polling place in Gallant, Alabama riding horseback, which the embattled Republican candidate sees as a folksy, good luck charm 

Roy Moore and his wife Kayla briefly spoke outside his polling place in Gallant, Alabama. The couple arrived to the fire department on horseback 

Roy Moore and Sassy were surrounded by reporters as the Senate candidate arrived at his polling place in Gallant, Alabama today 

Roy Moore and his wife Kayla ready their horses to ride after casting ballots in today's special election in Alabama 

Away: Roy Moore faces a ride into either the political wilderness if he loses, or a new battle over his future if  he wins, with many of his senate colleagues refusing to endorse him and Richard Shelby, the Alabama senior senator, saying he did not vote for his fellow Republican

Trump asked Alabamians to send Moore to the Senate despite claims from multiple women that the former state Supreme Court judge groped them when they were teeenagers

Moore has been accused of multiple women for preying on them sexually, when they were teenage girls.  

Democrat Jones has suggested that voting for Moore would leave a stain on the state.   

'In Alabama, we have come so far with too many things, and there's this saying, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me,"' Jones told reporters gathered outside his Birmingham polling location. 'Alabama's not going to let that shame happen.' 

Jones was asked by a journalist what he would do if he was bested by Moore, who in usual circumstances would be an easy winner in the bright red state. 

The Democrat, who is up 10 points in one poll and down nine in another – showing the sheer impossibility of predicting the electorate in this race – didn't want to fathom the possibility of a loss. 

He said that he didn't think 'we're going to get that.'

'I don't think Roy Moore is going to win this election,' Jones said.      

Donald Trump weighed in one last time Tuesday morning on the bitter race, urging voters to pick the conservative who has become a proxy for larger political and cultural battles.

'The people of Alabama will do the right thing,' Trump tweeted, trying to stop Democrat Doug Moore from overtaking Republican Roy Moore.

'Doug Jones is Pro-Abortion, weak on Crime, Military and Illegal Immigration, Bad for Gun Owners and Veterans and against the WALL. Jones is a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet.' 

'Roy Moore will always vote with us. VOTE ROY MOORE!' Trump added. 

Democrat Doug Jones spoke to reporters after he cast his ballot Tuesday morning in Alabama's special Senate election 

Surrounding by supporters, Democrat Doug Jones suggested that scandal-ridden Republican Roy Moore wouldn't win today's race in the heavily Republican state 

Democrat Doug Jones said, 'Alabama's not going to let that shame happen,' as he runs against Roy Moore, an accused pedophile 

Democrat Doug Jones waves at supporters after he cast his ballot in Tuesday's competitive special election for the U.S. Senate seat that belonged to Attorney General Jeff Sessions 

Doug Jones receives a ballot at the Brookwood Baptist Church in Mountain Brook, Alabama, a town located outside of Birmingham

In the final hours of campaigning, both Jones and Moore had influential surrogates at their side. 

For Jones it was basketball legend Charles Barkley, a native Alabaman, who asked his state mates to 'stop looking like idiots to the nation.' 

For Moore, it was a cast of characters popular with the political right. 

He had former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and Milwaukee Sheriff  David Clarke. 

President Trump had recorded a robo call in support for Moore, while President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden had done the same for Jones. 

Tuesday morning Trump again chimed in offering his support of Moore via his Twitter account. 

'The people of Alabama will do the right thing,' Trump wrote. 'Doug Jones is Pro-Abortion, weak on Crime, Military and Illegal Immigration, Bad for Gun Owners and Veterans and against the WALL. Jones is a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet.'

'Roy Moore will always vote with us,' he wrote. 'VOTE Roy Moore!'

Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore (left) gives a squeeze to his wife Kayla (right) at a final campaign rally in Midland City, Alabama on Monday night 

An alligator is displayed after people decorated a "swamp" before a scheduled campaign rally for U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore on Monday night

Allegations aside, Trump said in a robocall to Alabama voters that he badly needs Moore's own vote in the U.S. Senate. Former President Barack Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, recorded calls for Jones seeking to break the GOP's lock on statewide office in Alabama.

Whether the calls would sway anyone so late in such a highly publicized campaign was an open question. So was the impact of a rash of false news stories that have appeared on social media spreading misinformation.

One website wrongly claimed that one of the women who have accused Moore of sexual misconduct had recanted. Meanwhile, Moore's detractors took to social media to claim he had written in a 2011 textbook that women shouldn't hold elected office. He didn't.

On election eve, Moore called in to a conservative talk radio show in Alabama to lament the tone of the campaign and portray cast himself as the victim of the sexual misconduct allegations.

'We've seen things happen in this campaign that I can't believe to this day,' said Moore, who has denied all wrongdoing in contacts with the women who said he behaved inappropriately when they were in their teens and he was a local prosecutor in his 30s. One said he initiated sexual contact when she was 14.

Then he held a rally which saw his wife defend him against anti-semitism and his Vietnam veteran best friend offer an extraordinary defense against the pedophilia claims, saying they had visited an underage brothel - but left.

Bill Staehle defended theRepublican Senate hopeful against pedophilia accusations by describing a time the two men accidentally entered a teen brothel while serving in Vietnam.

'I could tell you what I saw, but I don't want to,' Staehle first told the crowd, gathered in a large rustic barn used for weddings, before divulging some details. 'There were certainly pretty girls. And they were girls. They were young. Some were probably very young.'

But as a testament to Moore – who has been accused by multiple women of sexual harassment and assault while they were teens – the candidate said, 'We shouldn't be here, I'm leaving,' according to Staehle's account. 'That was Roy, honorable, disciplined, morally straight, highly principled,' Staehle said.

Next to speak was Moore's wife Kayla, who tsk-tsked the 'fake news,' suggesting it was the media's fault that people think her husband 'doesn't support the black community' nor do they like Jews.    

'I tell you all this because I see you all and I want to set the record straight while they're here,' she said motioning to the slew of journalists at the back of the room during the election eve event. 

'One of our attorneys is a Jew,' Kayla Moore said.  

'We have very close friends that are Jewish, and rabbis, and we also fellowship with them,' she said, after saying she and her husband had fellowship with members of the black community as well. 

Moore was cast as anti-Semitic after he suggested that Democratic donor George Soros, who is Jewish, is going to hell. 

'He's still going to the same place that people who don't recognize God and morality and accept his salvation are going,' Moore said 'And that's not a good place.'  

Kayla Moore continued her attack on the press, by suggesting reporters were in the tank for her husband's Democratic opponent Doug Jones.