On Election Day, the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump continues to be so close that even political experts are having a hard time predicting a winner.
Politico noted that the presidential race is statistically tied in all seven battleground states, making a clean sweep for either Harris or Trump equally likely.
However, Lenny Bronner at the Washington Post believes Americans “shouldn’t be surprised if one of the two candidates ends up winning all (or nearly all) the swing states.”
He also believes that the election is undetermined but it may not be close. Other prominent outlets have reported on just how close the presidential race is—and their predictions are jarring.
In a Wall Street Journal article entitled “Nate Silver’s Final Election Model: ‘Quite Ridiculous,’” the election prognosticator stated: “When I say the odds in this year’s presidential race are about as close as you can possibly get to 50/50, I’m not exaggerating.”
The publication also explained that Silver ran 80,000 election simulations using his model and it included polls, economic factors and inputs based on turnout. He discovered that Harris won 40,012 simulations while Trump won 39,718 outright, prompting a 269-269 Electoral College tie.
Silver’s scenario meant the House would decide the election and Trump would most likely win because Republicans have control over more state delegations. “Obviously, this is quite ridiculous,” he said.
New York Times Chief Political Analyst Nate Cohn explained that regardless of who wins, the American people may very well see a repeat of the 2020 election.
“In today’s polarized country, what could be less surprising than a more-or-less repeat of the 2020 election: yet another close election across the battleground states, with few swings from four years ago?” he wrote.
“After all, Mr. Trump is on the ballot for a third straight time. Voters may hem and haw, but it’s easy to see how they might mostly vote as they did last time, yielding a result a lot like 2020.”
However, New York Times Opinion columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom compared this election to a much different year. “That is why we are back where we were in 2016,” Cottom said, referring to Trump’s first presidential victory.
“The fundamentals haven’t changed; the Republicans just have a clearer story about why.”
One thing we can count on is brutality that the election results will inspire across the nation, according to “White Rural Rage” author Paul Waldman.
He explained to MSNBC that there will be “outbreaks of violence at state and county election offices around the country as Trump supporters whipped into a frenzy by his venomous lies follow his implicit instructions to take by force what they may not have won at the ballot box.”