ABC News reports that a “red mirage” could make it look like Republicans are winning big on the night, but that a full vote count could take “weeks.”
The establishment news outlet has published an article titled ‘Early election night results might not indicate final tallies (and why that’s OK)’.
The piece explains how Republicans may “appear to be leading their Democratic opponents, even by large margins” in federal and statewide races, but that their leads “will dwindle, or crumble completely” after “dumps” of mail-in and absentee ballots are counted after election day, which could take “weeks”.
“This phenomenon was popularized as the “red mirage” or the “blue shift” after the 2020 presidential election, when former President Donald Trump took a deceptive lead in several competitive states on Election Day due to delays in counting of Democrats’ mail-in ballots — their preferred method of voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic — only to eventually dissipate when the entire reserve of votes was totaled,” states the report.
A “red mirage,” or an artificial GOP vote lead, will likely reoccur Tuesday. https://t.co/tagIbNJscC
— ABC News (@ABC) November 7, 2022