Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Wednesday, September 2nd. I'm Niala Boodoo. Here's how we're making you smarter today. It's a great time to be a car dealer, plus the new $2,000

flip phone. But first, the election nightmare scenario for Democrats is today's one big thing.

We talked on Axios today before about this presidential election

being like no other because of the coronavirus. So on election night we might

see immediate results from Republican voters who cast their ballots in person.

Democrats and independents, who may be more leery of the pandemic, are more likely to mail in their

vote, which is going to take longer to count.

This could lead to what some Democratic strategists are calling the red mirage.

We believe that on election night,

we are going to see Donald Trump in a stronger position

than the reality actually is.

That's Josh Mendelssohn. He's the CEO of Hawkfish, a Democratic

Strategy and modeling firm and he spoke with White House and Politics Editor

Margaret Talib on our HBO show about what the electoral map could look like on election night

versus what the total count will actually be when it's all over. Their argument is

that there is crucial period of time between November the 3rd and whatever the end

date is for the count. It may look on election night like President Trump is

decisively heading towards a second term.

Whereas in fact, over the course of the next several days,

that map, which would be red, if you conceived it in your mind,

overwhelmingly red, would increasingly turn blue in. if you conceived it in your mind, overwhelmingly

turn blue in the days and days and days, or perhaps weeks

...