I've become very involved in this race, working w/women in Alabama. My moods are swinging from positive for Jones (who I've supported since the primary) to despair over the outrageous and untrue statements said about him. This morning's poll gives me hope because the sample is much larger, and it documents that women are significantly more likely to vote for Jones. Turnout among moderate Republican women, Dems, of course, and Alabama's black community are critical.

When working on my own mindset, I remember Va a month ago, where polls showed an even race, but the actual result was huge for Dems.

The beliefs of Roy Moore are so extreme that it astounds me that he could become a US senator. Forget the sexual harassment claims. Moore is a LEADER in the personhood movement, giving ALL legal rights of a grown woman with three kids to a fertilized egg. The state would govern pregnancy, protecting the rights of the embryo.

It's all terrifying -- so terrifying that I forced myself to become educated on the rare third-trimester abortion last night. Not the statistics, which are about 1% nationally and 3 in Alabama last year, but the procedure itself.

In the new poll from Post-Schar collab at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University , 53% of voters in the larger sample of 749 likely voters, said Jones, a former federal prosecutor who prosecuted the Klan for the murder of four little girls in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing , had higher standards or personal moral conduct than Moore. In contrast, about a third of likely voters said Moore, who has cast his campaign as a "spiritual battle" with heavy religious overtones, had higher moral standards.

Among the 1 in 4 voters who said the candidates' moral conduct will be the most important factor in their vote, Jones led, 67% to 30%.

Alabama is a hugely Republican state, and Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by 28 points in the presidential election. But Democrats said they were more enthusiastic about turning out for the special election. By 47% to 38%, more Democratic-leaning voters than Republican-leaning voters said it was "extremely important" to vote in the election. Democratic-leaners were also 12 points more likely to say they were following the race "very closely," and 10 points more likely to say they were "absolutely certain to vote." Read on about the details of this very thorough, data-rich portrait of the race. ~ Anne