Election Day arrives with doubts about the outcome — and legitimate concerns about the safety of the nation

Well, here it is, Election Day.

And here we are, hopeful, apprehensive and more than a little scared.

What’s going to happen? Will Vice President Kamala Harris become the first woman president? Will Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, win, relieving the concerns of hundreds of millions of people across the globe?

Or will former President Donald Trump become the second president after Grover Cleveland to regain the White House? Will Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, take control of the country and steer it in a reckless manner, risking our present and future?

Or will we see a repeat of 2020, when Trump is defeated but refuses to accept the outcome? He has already begun laying the groundwork for another uprising if the votes don’t go his way. It’s a process that began in 2021.

Will his most addled and dangerous supporters attempt to seize control of the government? Will they take up arms against the nation they so loudly denounce as a hellhole — but also claim to love?

Will Harris win a close election? Polls show a neck-and-neck race between her and Trump? Will she be allowed to begin the process of becoming president, as Joe Biden steps aside for her, as he did in July?

Or will voters decide they are weary of his bombast, bragging and befuddling actions and words and soundly reject him? Even if they do, will he just go away?

What if Trump wins, either in a close race and a landslide? The Democrats will grumble and bemoan that outcome — and I will join in that chorus — but they will not arm themselves and storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2025, in an effort to overturn the formal counting of Electoral College ballots.

There is even a more troubling option we must consider. What if Harris wins but Trump allies in state governments, in the courts and in Congress scheme to hand the presidency over to him?

What would happen then?

In the past, these are not matters that worried us, at least not in most elections. The election of 1876 remains controversial, the true winner uncertain.

The election of 2000 was a muddy, muddled mess. Did George W. Bush really win Florida? Or was Vice President Al Gore cheated out of the White House? We will never really know.

But in all other cases, there was a winner and a loser, in both landslides and in razor-close results. The winner smiled and posed for photos, while the loser delivered a concession speech and largely vanished from the stage.

The 2020 uprising that Trump led changed all that. Here was the startling case of a candidate soundly defeated who refused to accept the truth. He lost and there was no doubt about it.

Trump tried in the courts, and more than 60 judges, many whom he appointed, dismissed the claim that the election was stolen. He implored his vice president, Mike Pence, to violate the Constitution and ignore tradition and refuse to certify the results (Pence is seen above in a public domain photo certifying the results, contrary to Trump’s urgings not to, as posted on wikimedia commons).

He urged his mob to come to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, to threaten Pence and Congress, to try to seize the presidency on his behalf. While the violent riot and assault on the Capitol took place, Trump sat back and watched on TV, ignoring his duty to bring the assault to a close before blood was shed.

It’s incredible that alone did not forever disqualify him for consideration for the presidency, but the strange yet powerful hold he has on his supporters cannot easily be severed. He has even dared to call it a “day of love,” creating an alternative reality that his mob accepts without question.

How will they act this week when the results are known. If Harris wins, will they accept it? Must she win in a landslide? Even then, will they accept it?

Will it be the Big Lie II?

Will a close race that ends in her favor trigger another attempt to reverse the outcome? This time, Biden is president with the power of the federal government behind him to keep order and prevent a repeat of the attempted insurgency.

But all these thoughts are running through the minds of millions of Americans today. What will happen after the polls close — and what will occur after the results are announced?

Yes, we are more than a little scared. And we should be, too.

Fourth-generation South Dakotan Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states for four decades. He has contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The London Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Do not republish without permission.