The votes to determine the winner of the 2020 presidential election are still being counted across the U.S., but one result is clear: former Vice President Joe Biden did not win in a landslide, as many pollsters and pundits predicted. Adam Reilly, GBH News political reporter, had predicted on GBH’s Greater Boston last night that Biden would win by a large margin on election night. He joined Joe Mathieu on Morning Edition today to discuss the “pundit reckoning” now underway and what we can expect as an anxious country awaits the final outcome of this election.

“I might have let my hope for some kind of decisive resolution get the better of me,” Reilly, who spent Election Day in the field talking to voters in Danvers, Mass., said.

According to Reilly, this seemingly close race is worrying for the future of our democracy. “I’m really concerned for what lies ahead for this country as one civic polity, whoever prevails,” he said. “Because you have such a stark split, not just in terms of what the margins are going to be in the electoral college and the popular vote, but the two radically different conceptions of how the United States should function as a polity and the norms we should adhere to.”

Watch: Neither Donald Trump, nor Joe Biden, are capable of unifying the nation

Mathieu noted that the longer we go without a result, the more many Americans worry about the possibility of unrest and violence in Boston and other cities. In a normal election year, Reilly said, we would see the candidates appealing for calm and patience. But that’s not happening this year, as evidenced by President Trump's announcement on live television late Tuesday evening in which he falsely claimed victory. Reilly didn’t rule out the possibility of violence or unrest admidst questions of the legitimacy of the election. “A big chunk of his [President Trump’s] supporters think Joe Biden can’t win unless it’s an illegitimate election," he said.

Reilly said that, once the election is finally decided, the next challenge Americans will face is unifying — a monumental challenge, given how this election has played out. “Maybe it’s the lack of sleep, but it’s hard not for me to feel pessimistic about the moment we’re in and where we’re heading,” he said.

Watch: Adam Reilly on Trump supporters who think the nation is too divided