Two weeks from tomorrow is Election Day. To be followed by Election Night, when we all gather 'round our screens and watch the returns come in and wait for the experts to call each of the states for one candidate or the other. But remember last time? This time might turn out the same -- instead of just one night of stress, we may all have to live through "Election Week," as the final votes are counted.

Four years ago, I heard a friend-of-a-friend anecdote about a small child who complained that Mommy and Daddy were hogging the television in order to endlessly watch the most boring show imaginable -- which the kid called: "The Map Show." All I'm saying is we might be in for season two of The Map Show this time around.

What with focusing on the actual election, what many are losing sight of (and I definitely include myself in that) is that Election Day isn't going to be the end of the stress, it could easily become just the beginning of a whole new phase of stress. That could all kick off with us all waiting on a handful of states to finish counting every single vote. Pennsylvania certainly springs to mind, as does Arizona and Georgia. Wisconsin and Michigan could also take a while, who knows?

This was all brought back to me by reading an interesting interview Politico did with Arnon Mishkin, the "chief nerd" (he accept this label in the interview) of the Decision Desk at Fox News. He is not an actual Fox employee, but rather a consultant who independently makes the calls for each state on Election Night. He's the guy who upset so many Fox viewers last time by (correctly) calling Arizona early for Joe Biden. He's also the guy who (much earlier, in 2012) had to school Karl Rove (who was in the midst of losing his marbles, on air) on why he had (rightly) called Ohio for Barack Obama. So he's used to operating under pressure, obviously.

But one key question stood out in the interview:

[Q:] When do you think you're going to be able to call this election? Do you think it's going to be the night of? A week later? Possibly longer? The race seems so close.

[ARNON MISHKIN:] The race seems very, very close. It is dependent on a number of states, like Pennsylvania, that we believe are going to be reporting in a pattern similar to the way they have reported in the past. So I'd say, the over/under is Saturday. Which was when the call was made last time. Which is when Pennsylvania is likely to come in.

I think we have to accept the reality that we don't really know how close this election is going to be. I'm pretty sure it's going to be close. I see some polls that say, "Actually, it ain't going to be close. It's going to be one way or the other." There's some reporting that Trump is sort of gaining. Some of the polls have showed he's gaining. There's another sense I have that actually he may be declining. I think the real issue is what happens to [Donald] Trump. I've always thought this about this election: It's less about who's running against him than it's about Trump.

Let that sink in for a moment: Saturday.

Of course, like all predictions, that one might turn out to be wrong. We could know very early in the evening of Election Night who is going to win. If either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump easily wins Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, then most likely we're all going to have an early night of it. If, however, key states stay stubbornly colorless on all the networks' maps, then it could easily be days before we all know. And with the polling so close, at this point that looks more like the plausible outcome.

Whenever the results are fully known, that still might not be the end of the cycle. If Donald Trump loses, it definitely won't be. If Kamala Harris loses by a whisker, she may very well challenge the results in the states that are closest. The difference between the two is that we know that Harris will do so through the legal system, the way candidates are supposed to. If she still loses after recounts happen and after losing court challenges, then she will concede the election and Donald Trump will peacefully be sworn in as president on January 20th of next year.

If Trump loses, however, all bets are off. Anything could happen. This will begin the same way -- with official recounts and court challenges. Team Trump learned a few lessons from the last time they tried this, so there could be an absolute flood of court cases challenging results, all over the map. What's more concerning is the security of any official recounts. Will crowds of Trump followers surround the buildings where such recounts are happening? They certainly showed up at a few last time. They may be a lot angrier this time around, should this situation repeat.

Trump, of course, will be egging his supporters on from the sidelines. He will not be calling for calm, to put this another way. He will be frothing at the mouth insisting that the election was once again "rigged" or "stolen" from him. That all seems guaranteed.

How long could this phase go on? Well, last time around... it's still going on. Trump continues to insist that his Big Lie is true -- that somehow, in some nefarious manner (of which he has found no proof whatsoever), a cabal of Democrats stole the election right out from under his nose. He's never conceded the 2020 election, and he has forced all his loyal sycophants in the Republican Party to at least give lip service to his Big Lie. If Trump loses again, he will likely go to his grave insisting that both elections were stolen from him. For Trump, there will be no end to the sore-loser phase.

How soon will it be before the rest of us can move on? That is unknown. Even saying "by Saturday" is far too optimistic (unless, of course, Trump wins). Trump will resist tooth and nail all the mechanisms which actually elect a United States president, although this time around he will not be in power. He will not have his own hand-picked attorney general to order around. He will not have a compliant Justice Department. He will not be able to pick up the phone and give orders to the military. And this time around, the Capitol will be an absolute fortress by January 6th. So it's doubtful we'll see an exact replay of what happened after the 2020 election, because with Trump out of office some parts of it will be absolutely impossible.

But no matter what happens, the likelihood of us all going to bed on Election Night knowing who won cannot be considered to be all that high. Unless the polling is incredibly off (which could indeed be the case), it's going to be very close in a number of the battleground states. Some of these states are more efficient at counting votes than others. So all I am saying is we should all be prepared to go to bed on Election Night still in a state of uncertainty. because The Map Show might get blockbuster ratings all week long, once again.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant