The 2024 election could be the end of democracy as we know it

In 2000, America witnessed one of the strangest election outcomes in its history — the “hanging chads” election in which the winner was to be determined by counting little bits of cardboard suspended from improperly punched ballots in Florida. After 35 suspenseful days, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the election to George W. Bush, even though Al Gore won the popular vote.

Then came 2020, when Donald Trump refused to accept his loss and summoned a makeshift political paramilitary force to Washington, D.C., to keep Congress from its constitutional duty to certify Joe Biden as the winner. Thousands of insurrectionists stormed the Capitol and rioted. To this day, Trump claims Biden’s victory was fraudulent.