Sure, the U.S. election is on November 3 — but that doesn’t mean that we’ll know who won the presidency by November 4. Between the lag time for mail-in ballots to Trump’s constant foreboding about voter fraud, there’s a great deal of tension building up to voting day. Add to that concerns over armed rightwing militias, voter suppression tactics, the threat of foreign interference and the ongoing global pandemic.

In today’s special episode, Elamin zooms out to understand this moment in history and what it could mean in the long run. He calls up authors and journalists Sarah Kendzior and Stephen Marche to work through silver linings and worst case scenarios. There are, unfortunately, more of the latter. The key question looms large: is there hope for a free and fair election in 2020?