Not only is the coronavirus driving more people to cast their votes by mail this year, but it also may be splitting the electorate in a fundamentally partisan way.

Reuters Ipsos polling shows that mainland voters favored Democrat Joe Biden over President Donald Trump by a 2 to 1 margin.

Meanwhile, a majority of voters who want to vote in person on Election Day say that they're backing Donald Trump.

This split could create what many are calling red or blue Mirages on November 3rd.

That is early and false impressions of a lead for one of the two major party candidates.

In some cases, those Mirages could last just a few hours.

In others, it may last for days.

Take the battleground states of Florida and North Carolina.

Both states are allowed to count their mail in ballots ahead of the election, and they are currently expected toe report.

Those results assumes voting ends because of that floor in North Carolina may appear to be leaning towards a Biden wind early in the night.

But be aware that lead really isn't really it's just a head start in the ballot counting binds.

Advantage over Trump in those states should erode as more in person votes are mixed in.

It'll be the opposite in some of the critical Rust Belt states.

Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania will only start counting their mail in ballots on November 3rd.

It takes time to do that, which means early on it will appear as if Trump has jumped out to what would be a surprising lead, Given that polls show right now that he's trailing Biden in those states again, this is just a mirage.

Trump's lead in the Rust Belt will decline as a mail in ballots are tallied.

What's more, it may take days or even weeks to fully recount the mail in ballots in some of those states, so everyone is gonna need to be patient.

Some races may not be called until well after Election Day.