It’s Election Eve, 96 million Americans have already voted and 9.3 million people have been infected with Covid-19

We don’t know who will win this election, but we have already learned something very important about US politics in 2020, and that’s this: One party has been actively and openly trying to get people’s votes thrown out.

If this were being done quietly, it would be a scandal. Done out loud by the President, it has the veneer of policy. Or at least that’s the way it’s being treated. But it’s no less corrosive to people’s faith in the system.

Former President Barack Obama was nailing three-pointers before a speech over the weekend. Biden was out with Lady Gaga in Pittsburgh. Those interludes felt like normal-year retail politics, regular get-out-the-young-vote moves at a time when the whole democratic system could be teetering. It’s clear that Biden is trying to project a steady hand when everyone’s shaking. Then again, this is the turnout portion of an election. It’s a few extra people in each neighborhood that make winners.

There’s a pit in my stomach tonight. I honestly wonder what comes next and I can’t shake the unease.

Will there be violence if Trump wins?

Will there be violence if Trump loses?

Coordinated attack. Trump’s warnings that any result that does not end with him in the White House must be “rigged” are working in tandem with Republican efforts to have hundreds of thousands of votes thrown out. Those efforts have faltered in key state and federal courts.

“Like so many 11th-hour voting-related suits filed by Republicans in recent weeks, this suit has almost nothing to do with voter fraud. Rather, it’s the latest in a consistent and cynical line of suits — in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, among others — that appear motivated by partisan gain, assuming that the exclusion of any set of ballots from Harris County, the third-largest in the country and one of Texas’s key Democratic strongholds, is good for Republicans.”

It’s the voters’ turn. Anything less than a blowout seems destined to be a legal battle. “I don’t think it’s fair that we have to wait for a long period of time after the election … We’re going in the night of — as soon as the election is over — we’re going in with our lawyers,” Trump promised.

Polling suggests Joe Biden is in the stronger spot. But polling deceived us four years ago. And if there are only two real options, either one could win. Make no mistake that come Wednesday (or later), we could be talking about Trump’s reelection.

Historical notes — Trump should be winning. Only three incumbent presidents in Trump’s lifetime have lost their bid for a second term. And Gerald Ford was never himself elected, so he gets a huge asterisk. That Trump is in a place of weakness, according to polls, is evidence, maybe, that division, discord and a failure to do even basic leadership like pushing mask mandates during a pandemic have turned voters off.

“Let us resolve they will say of our day and our generation that we did keep faith with our God, that we did act worthy of ourselves; that we did protect and pass on lovingly that shining city on a hill,” he said in closing.

What’s next? Both Trump and Biden wrapped up their arguments in Pennsylvania. It’s not a bad bet we’ll be talking about that state late into the night on Tuesday.

And if it’s not that close, that might be a good indicator of what’s to come.

But don’t expect a decision on election night. In Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, both key states, officials have said many ballots will not be fully counted. This thing, as we’ve said repeatedly, will take a while.

: What to watch in exit polls

I’m going to be watching exit polls and results on election night and try to identify themes about why either side won or lost and what it says about the country right now.

That said, I’m no polling expert. And exit polls are one of the most misunderstood tools in political journalism. They’re also among the first things we’ll hear about on election night.

So I’ll be leaning heavily on the people at CNN who are.

I asked Ryan Struyk, who does know quite a bit about polls and who normally works with Jake Tapper on the State of the Union staff, for his thoughts.

He sent over a lot more than I expected. I’ll put the entire guide below:

The exit polls will offer us some key clues about whether Trump or Biden are winning over the voters they need to clinch the White House. Here’s what I’m watching:

The key groups to watch for Trump:

The key groups to watch for Biden: