Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, asked one of the witnesses at Monday’s hearing — former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt — about the so-called “red mirage,” which painted a rosier picture for Trump on election night that slowly faded as The democratically inclined ballots were counted.
That dynamic – also known as the ‘blue shift’ – was particularly pronounced in 2020, due to the significant increase in postal voting during the Covid-19 pandemic. But this increase didn’t happen across the board — Democrats flocked to the postal vote in 2020, while many Republicans preferred to vote in person on Election Day, thanks in large part to Trump’s claims that postal voting was a sham.
This gap made for an interesting phenomenon when it came time to count the votes.
Here’s what DailyExpertNews said about this in September 2020: It takes longer to count the ballots sent in, and in many states ballots are still admissible if they are stamped on Election Day but arrive later. In simple terms, that means the partial results reported on election night probably look worse for then-candidate Joe Biden than the final, full count.
“In every election, Republicans win Election Day and Democrats win the early vote. Then you wait and count the statistics,” said Stirewalt, who was involved in Fox News’ election forecasts. “…Usually the votes count first on Election Day. You see the Republican shooting ahead… you expect to see the Republican with a head start, but it’s not really a head start.”
See our full explanation of the “red mirage” here†