On election night this Tuesday, Donald Trump faced off against Joe Biden. The election was a long road, and largely plagued with uncertainty due to the large amount of mail in voting this year. The country is torn on social media and faith in American institutions seem to have plummeted, as Republicans claim voter fraud was afoot in key swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia. The election is likely to be settled in courts, as the Trump team is nearly guaranteed to challenge a lot of the results in these states.

Many voters were confused by the outcome, and rightly so. Trump appears to have over-performed with non white groups and women, two groups that polling showed Trump doing far worse than he did in the election. Yet despite all of this, Trump’s chances at remaining the president are narrowing. With this news, Joe Biden recently stated in front of supporters in Wilmington, Delaware, “I’m here to tell you tonight we believe we’re on track to win this election. I’m optimistic about this outcome.”

However, it isn’t all good news for Democrats. It is becoming increasingly likely that Republicans will maintain their majority in the senate, with news coming out of Alaska, and the race for the senate seat in Maine being called for Susan Collins. If current patterns hold, it appears Thom Tillis will also come out on top in North Carolina. John James is also close in the Michigan senate race. If Republicans are able to hold, Democrats are going to have a difficult time passing legislature. Biden would be capable of doing some executive orders, but a Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority has the power to strike down certain actions as unconstitutional and so he would certainly be on a leash. As bleak as it may seem watching Donald Trump potentially go down, conservatives indeed have a silver lining.

Hypothetically, though unlikely, Trump still has a shot at victory. Assuming Trump hangs onto North Carolina and Georgia, and comes out on top in both Pennsylvania and Nevada, then he would have enough electoral votes.

There’s also uncertainty with the results in Arizona too. If somehow Trump makes a comeback with the remainder of the votes, all he would need is Pennsylvania and he is the victor. Granted, these appear to be unlikely scenarios, but do have a plausible chance at occurring.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien seems unusually optimistic about the President’s chances in Arizona, saying, “And based on the math that we have been seeing as these late arriving ballots are counted, anywhere from two thirds to 70 percent of these votes are coming to the president, the math adds up to a margin of around 30,00 in the president’s favor.”

Regardless of what happens, Republicans claiming voter fraud in swing states are already rampant.

Voter, Jerry Stevens is cautiously optimistic however, saying, “I think concerns with voter fraud are always valid. Obviously, voter fraud is bad. If a person is going to make a big claim about voter fraud being in the election, there should be sufficient evidence. It should be investigated like any other election security concern, but states have protective measures to ensure the results in the election are legitimate.”

When asked if national unity will be even more unsalvageable with the delayed results, Stevens predicts, “I don’t think there will be any violence, at least not more than there is already. In terms of national unity, the lack of results in this election won’t be too different than other elections. Plenty of states haven’t finished counting all the votes, even in non swing states such as California. I think the delayed results mainly are problem for those who lack patience, but it takes a while for the president-elect to officially be confirmed in a regular year.”

The country will have to see if the projections of Stevens as well as the two campaigns come to pass, but the outcome will be greatly contested no matter what, with a large swath of legal battles on the horizon. Whoever wins will be considered as an illegitimate victory by a significant number of people, but the hope is that whoever the next president is, would be a unifying figure for the country, providing hopeful rhetoric, whether Biden wins or Trump somehow makes a comeback. It seems much more likely though that dark times will be upon the country soon. It could be one of the final straws in regard to our country’s national unity, which was already in the process of unraveling, which would be the biggest tragedies of the night.