OTTAWA -- The many talking heads who have their eyes fixed on the U.S. presidential race may not agree on much, but they do appear to speak with a unanimous voice on one issue: Tuesday's election might be a tight one.
Multiple American pundits and former political staff expressed the expectation in interviews with CTV Question Period Host Evan Solomon, airing Sunday.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer told Solomon that he can "absolutely" see a pathway to victory for his former boss, U.S. President Donald Trump.
"I can play out a bunch of different scenarios where he ekes out a win," Spicer told Solomon.
"The question is: Can he get to 270? He won 306 electoral votes last time, so he actually has 36 that he could shed and still get to 270. But I think on election night, he needs to hold those key East Coast swing states: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and then Pennsylvania, eventually. If he loses any four of those [states], I think it's going to be almost impossible but definitely a huge challenge to win the election."
It's a feeling that was shared by David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush who has been extremely critical of Trump, who agreed that there are a "number of" scenarios in which Trump could win.
"There are a number of theoretical scenarios where Donald Trump could eke it out in the electoral college, but there's no scenario where he doesn't lose the vote by 10, 12, 15, or as many as 16 million votes to Joe Biden," Frum argued in his own interview with Solomon.
Frum noted that the voter turnout in the election is on track to be extremely high, with roughly 160 million Americans expected to vote -- and Frum said "nothing" like that has ever been seen before.
"I think it's not going to be possible for Trump to catch up and we are on our way to a massive popular vote result. And the question is does the American electoral system reflect the American popular vote," Frum noted.
Former Democratic Congresswoman Donna Edwards speculated that this turnout could be an advantage for Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
"I think that people who are showing up, we’re seeing a greater turnout among young people, seniors, and these are really strong demographic groups that actually in this election may work to the advantage of former vice president Joe Biden," Edwards told Solomon.
However, she too said she's expecting the race to be tight.
"There's still a lot of volatility. I suspect that it is going to be a closer election than what the polls are showing, but I’m going to give the edge to Joe Biden going in," Edwards said.
As speculation continues to swirl of a close race on Tuesday, the host of Velshi on MSNBC, Ali Velshi said tensions will be running high as the results trickle in -- something that may be happening slowly, as Pennsylvania is accepting mail in ballot until the Friday after the election.
"In close states we may be counting for several days," Velshi told Solomon, noting that many are preparing for the possibility that tensions could boil over amid the wait for results.
"One of the things that the cities are bracing for, including Philadelphia where I am, is violence, unrest, things like that. Walmart has taken guns out of its displays, so that if it stores get broken into or looted, nobody can go to them. The National Guard is here in Philadelphia as we speak, there are contingency plans for that," Velshi said.
"There are a lot of people, anxious and angry and armed in this state."
Meanwhile, Spicer said that no matter what happens on Tuesday, the losing candidate should concede and accept the result -- that is, unless it's tight.
"I think that there's no candidate on either side of the aisle for any office in America, that should ever concede an election, if it's within the margin of error before a full recount is done," Spicer said.
"If it's not close then, whether it's Joe Biden or Donald Trump, they should concede the election. If it is close and they should exhaust every remedy available to them."
CTV News will have full coverage of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3.
