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Dear John,
In a dirty trick on the American people, Trump used the election night ‘red mirage’ in 2020 to fuel his claims of voter fraud and overturn the election. This year, he’s almost certainly going to try it again.
It couldn’t be more predictable. Only this time, Trump is likely to declare victory even sooner -- instead of waiting until 3am in the morning. This year, we should expect him to do it as early as he deems possible -- likely in time for the 11pm news on the East Coast -- and long before all the votes are counted.
Election disinformation and lies don’t work as well when the public is informed about what to expect in advance, but this year, the major networks are barely talking about the red mirage.
If you already know what I’m talking about, don’t wait another minute to take action. Sign and send a message to the CEOs of all the major networks demanding they explain the red mirage now, not after it’s too late.
What is the red mirage? When you click through to send your letter, you can also watch my video explaining it -- and Trump’s plan to exploit it -- in detail. If you share our action with friends, family, or like minded co-workers, they may find the video especially useful because it includes examples and, as with all our videos, we try to keep it as engaging as possible.
Here’s the deal: Republicans appear to take an early lead in almost every presidential election, because red, Republican-voting districts are smaller and their votes are counted up more quickly than huge big city Democrat-voting districts. That creates the red mirage. As more votes get counted throughout the night and over the next several days, that lead gets smaller and smaller, this is called the “blue shift.”
That’s right, it’s completely predictable, a fact of science, and it occurs nearly every time.
Likewise, Democrats tend to use vote by mail more than Republicans, and many states don’t even start counting mail-in ballots until Election Day. And still other states allow for ballots mailed and postmarked before the election deadline but that arrive after polls have closed -- sometimes as many as 5 days later -- to still be counted. Put both of these facts together and the red mirage can make the Republican lead appear quite significant on election night.
The media prepared the country for the red mirage in 2020, and yet Trump still used it as the foundation of the Big Lie. Trump pretended the blue shift was surprising and suspicious -- but there was nothing miraculous or secret about it. It just took until the Saturday after the election before the election was called for Biden because election officials worked hard to count every single vote.
This time, the media is asleep at the wheel by not setting expectations of what the public should anticipate and how long it may take for an official result. And the Trump universe of campaigns, PACs, media, and sycophants are more prepared to take advantage of it than ever. Together it’s a recipe for disaster that puts our entire country at risk.
America needs to be prepared for results to take days, possibly even weeks if court battles hold up some certifications. And they need to understand the red mirage, so election night lies are less likely to take hold.
We can predict Trump’s false claims as easily as we can predict there will be a “red mirage” on election night and a “blue shift” in the days that come. Send a direct message to the CEOs of NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, & MSNBC to tell them to do their job and inform the American public of what’s likely to happen now.
Thank you for taking action to expose proactively Trump’s dishonesty and lies on election night.
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
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