At the time this piece was written, the polls had yet to close across Rhode Island. We remained hours – perhaps days – from knowing who has won contests up and down the Nov. 3 election ballot.

We did know, however, that an enormous number of Rhode Islanders – nearly 306,000 – had already cast ballots based on the latest updates from the Secretary of State’s office.

That figure includes nearly 150,000 people who visited city and town halls since Oct. 14 to vote early and in person. That was made possible through an expansion of the emergency voting option, a change meant to alleviate the strain on elections officials and help ensure the safety of citizens as they exercised their franchise amid unprecedented circumstances. We hope some form of this option, which proved extremely popular, might be carried forward in election years to come.

Interest in the 2020 campaign, clearly, is extraordinarily high. So, too, has been the tension surrounding it.

Much of that intensity has stemmed from the presidential contest. Added to the mix have been the devastation of the pandemic and the painful renewal of our national reckoning with issues of racial and social justice.

It has all made for a profoundly challenging, troubling and uncertain time in America. We’ve felt it all acutely here in Rhode Island, and recent events – clashes between police and protestors, surging COVID-19 case counts, rapidly rising hospitalization numbers, continued economic anxiety – have done nothing to provide respite.

Now, with the campaign at an end, we enter a truly precarious period. We might, by the time readers pick up this week’s edition, know whether the next president of the United States will be Donald Trump or Joe Biden. But it’s wholly possible that the winner is not immediately clear. Worse, that lack of certainty may already have spurred corrosive and potential dangerous reactions.

The anxiety is palpable, and the concern over what might transpire this week is clearly very real. Civic leaders and law enforcement officials have spoken of stepping up security planning in the event the election results – or lack thereof – spur civil unrest. In many locations, including Rhode Island, members of the National Guard were standing ready as Election Day arrived.

All of this would have felt unthinkable in prior election years. In 2020, it’s sadly something like par for the course. We’re thankful that in our local communities, the worst kinds of outcomes still seem highly unlikely – but we must acknowledge being nervous nonetheless about what these next days and weeks might have in store.

It’s a bit of a late message now, but we’d urge all Rhode Islanders to remember that a lack of final results on election night is anything but unusual. Our state appears well positioned to provide a quick and accurate count, but in especially close races, the final tally always takes time. In a year when so many have cast ballots by mail, we must all have added patience.

Of course, local races – hotly contested though they have been – are no match for the presidential campaign in terms of passion. Unlike any year we can remember, the two major candidates have come to represent far more than just political parties or sets of policy prescriptions. The choice has been imbued with so much more – issues of identity, of morality, even of life and death.

Polarization is nothing new, nor is it remarkable for political campaigns to stoke fervent debates. But our democratic system is clearly in a deeply unhealthy place.

We hope that soon, a treatment or vaccine will allow us to move on from the darkest days of this pandemic. We hope that with this election campaign at an end, we can begin to more fully see one another as neighbors and fellow citizens rather than members of irreconcilable camps. We hope that together, we can truly confront and reckon with the systemic inequities that have denied so many a fair chance at this country’s promise.

However the results play out, and however long it takes to get there, what’s most important is a full, fair and accurate accounting of every vote. For without faith in that most crucial cornerstone of our way of life, we stand little chance of being able to repair the breach that now divides us, let alone moving toward a shared and brighter future.