Throughout U.S. history, presidential elections have generated a mix of excitement and unease. Americans cast their votes, hopeful their candidate would prevail and move the nation in a good direction, while often concerned that if the opponent won it would lead to policies detrimental to their vision for the future.

Such is the nature of self-governance in which the people choose their leaders. It works because losers accept the results. Some folks are elated, others disappointed. The republic moves on.

The mood is now different. Many Americans are looking to Tuesday and the conclusion of the 2024 election with dread. They fear the presidential election will not end with a concession but more controversy. They worry that the acrimony of the campaign will not dissipate but intensify, potentially even turn violent.

Why the change? One man is to blame. That man is Donald Trump. He and the enablers in the media and on social media platforms that perpetuated his lies that the 2020 election was fraudulent and that continue to undermine faith in our elections.

The 2020 election was not close. President Joe Biden defeated Trump in the Electoral College 306-232 and in the popular vote by 4 percentage points. Every objective analysis concluded it had been a free and fair election. Courts rejected more than five dozen appeals claiming malfeasance. In 2023, Fox News paid out $787.5 million in damages to Dominion Voting Systems, admitting it had defamed the company by repeating and amplifying lies that its voting machines were rigged.

Yet Trump has persisted in his lies of a stolen election. Both he and his vice-presidential running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, refuse to say they will accept the results in this election. The only outcome they will accept as legitimate is victory. Ominously, many of their supporters see things the same way.

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan social science and political research group, offers reasons for both some optimism and grave concern. Pew found 92% of registered voters say that elections in their community will be run and administered at least somewhat well, including 50% who say they will run very well. And 73% of voters say that elections across the U.S. will be run and administered at least somewhat well. Faith in our elections has not totally eroded.

More ominous, however, is the partisan gap. While 92% of those who identified as strongly backing Harris expect elections across the country to be administered well, only 52% of those who strongly back Trump expect U.S. elections to be administered well.

Trump has poisoned the well of self-governance. Too many in the Republican Party have assisted him. They have refused to refute Trump’s lies of a stolen election. It has left the republic on a dangerous precipice. If more Democrats also begin to see lost elections as fraudulent, then our democracy will tumble from that precipice on to the rocks of dysfunction. The nation is terribly close to that. A democracy cannot work if half the electorate sees those elected as illegitimate.

We urge Americans to take the better course, to accept the results of the coming election and respect the decisions of the courts when they settle disputes.

For inspiration look not to the 2020 election, but to a truly close and controversial contest, the presidential race of 2000.

That election came down to Florida. The candidate prevailing there would win the electoral vote. But the results were hotly disputed. Use of punch card ballots, with dimpled and hanging chads that made it difficult to discern voter intent, led to recounts and litigation. It ended Dec. 12 when the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ordered the counting to cease with Republican George W. Bush just 537 votes ahead of Vice President Al Gore, the Democrat.

On Dec. 13, Gore graciously conceded. He subsequently presided over the counting of the electoral votes making Bush the president. The dispute, he stated, had been “resolved, as it must be resolved, through the honored institutions of our democracy.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court's decision, I accept it,” said Gore. “I know that many of my supporters are disappointed. I am too. But our disappointment must be overcome by our love of country.”

In 2024, patriotic Americans will put partisanship aside for love of country, whatever the results.

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.