There is one much simpler scenario for election-night chaos, centering on a single address, that many analysts see as among the most plausible. The scenario can be averted, election officials say, by heightening public awareness about it - and by cautioning vigilance against carefully targeted lies that Donald Trump has already begun to tell.There is undoubtably an election day 'mirage', most telling in the speculations and fantasies above.Known as the "red mirage", the scenario could develop if Trump appears to be leading in the presidential race late on election night and declares victory before all the votes are counted.To some officials, the scenario is too realistic for words. The delay that officials know will be required to finish the counting could be enough time for Trump to sow doubt about the result, an effort the president has already begun.
"On election night, there's a real possibility that the data will show Republicans leading early, before all the votes are counted. Then they can pretend something sinister's going on when the counts change in Democrats' favor."
In the scenario, Trump's declaration of victory is echoed on the conservative TV network Fox News and by powerful Republicans across the US.
By the time final returns show that in fact Joe Biden has won the presidency, perhaps days later, the true election result has been dragged into a maelstrom of disinformation and chaos.
Current and former Pennsylvania officials and activists say that the antidote to the "red mirage" is as simple as the scenario itself.
Philadelphia will not be able to report its election result on the night of 3 November. In turn, the surge of Democratic votes out of Philadelphia, when they do land, will probably create the perception of a huge swing in the state to Biden. And finally, that swing could well be large enough to erase a lead that Trump might build up in rural counties elsewhere in the state - to appear to turn Pennsylvania from "red" to "blue" - and to potentially decide the entire election. Tom Ridge said:"All votes will not be counted by midnight on November 3. Because of Covid-19, there'll be millions of mail-in votes that it'll take several days to tally," Ridge said in a phone interview. One of the ways to reduce the anxiety level is to remind Americans of that reality, and call for peace and patience so that every vote can be counted."The blood-curdling thing about the red-mirage scenario, for some analysts, is that some aspects of it look more like a certainty than a scenario.
"The key term is 'election week'," said Patrick Christmas, policy director of the non-partisan Committee of Seventy good government organization in Philadelphia. "There's no longer going to be an election day here."
As plausible as it is, however, there are also many reasons why a "red mirage" scenario might not unfold. Biden could put the race away with a win earlier on election night in a key battleground state such as Florida.
Tapper reportedly spoke with a Twitter executive about the decision, but merely shrugged at Twitter's excuse for the blatant censorship.In a robust validation of the 'Streisand Effect' as reported above, the Post gained more than 190K followers while it was locked out of its Twitter account:
"Since Twitter has locked out the NYPost for violating rules that no longer stand as rules (but Twitter won't revisit past enforcement decisions) the NY Post COULD end this standoff by deleting the tweets that broke the rules (thus unlocking its account) then tweet them out again," he wrote.
"I asked a Twitter exec if this was possible, he said yes and it would end the whole thing. Probably take 15 seconds," Tapper continued.
That number represents a 10.6 percent increase in just about two weeks, according to analytics tool Social Blade.
The spike came as Twitter blocked the news organization from posting during that time period.A tweet announcing The Post's return to the social media site on Friday evening quickly went viral, racking up more than 17,000 retweets and close to 50,000 likes in about an hour.© Society Blade
The move came after The Post refused Twitter's demand that it delete six tweets that linked to stories that the company claimed — without any evidence — were based on hacked information.
The Post never budged, and kept the tweets on the account during the standoff.
Comment: Odds are Project Veritas will soon have yet another retraction to post on its Wall of Shame