A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.

This Audit Is Bad And You Should Feel Bad

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs released an analysis of the state Senate GOP’s incoming report from its so-called “audit” of the 2020 election results carried out by Cyber Ninjas, a firm led by a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist.

• In her 46-page analysis, Hobbs ripped the “audit” for:
  • “lack of security and chain of custody procedures”
  • “lack of transparency”
  • “lack of consistent, document quality control practices, policies, and procedures”
• There are “numerous examples of failures” in Cyber Ninjas’ review process, Hobbs said.
  • “Any one of these issues would deem an audit completely unreliable, but the combination of these failures renders this review meritless.”
• Hobbs pointed out that the primary reason for the audit was Republicans’ refusal to accept the election results that led to Trump’s solid defeat.
  • As a result, they held an audit that “undermined public confidence in accurate and secure elections that were conducted in 2020.”
• Stephen Richer, Maricopa County’s GOP county recorder and top elections official, also released a fiery prebuttal to the audit flatly rejecting his fellow Republicans’ stolen election narrative.
  • “Nobody stole Maricopa County’s election. Elections in Maricopa County aren’t rigged,” he wrote.
• The audit report is expected to be released soon.

Oregon Requires Teachers To Get Vaccinated

All teachers and other staff in Oregon’s K-12 schools, both public and private, must be vaccinated for COVID-19, Gov. Kate Brown (D) announced during a press briefing yesterday.

• Washington, California and Hawaii have similar vaccine mandates for teachers but vary between allowing weekly testing as an alternative to receiving the vaccine and whether university educators are included in the mandate, as is the case with Washington.

School Board Member Peddles Wack COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories

David Banks, the vice chair of Georgia’s Cobb County school board, has been emailing parents mind-boggling conspiracy theories about the virus from his official account.

• The emails allege, among other things, that White House COVID-19 expert Anthony Fauci paid a Chinese lab to research COVID-19, and that vaccines for the virus have toxic chemicals that “penetrate the brain with injury, and infect the entire human body.”
• CNN also received an email on “useless” masks from Banks’ account that cited a “study” that was actually just tweets from some entrepreneur in Texas.
• “Nothing has been debunked,” Banks told a parent who had replied to his email by debunking the misinformation he was pushing.

A Harrowing Image

The city of Jacksonville, Florida confirmed to local outlet First Coast News that this Reddit photo of several COVID-19 patients curled up in agony in the Jacksonville Public Library while awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) touted monoclonal antibody treatment is real:

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Goes Fully Mask Off

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick blames unvaccinated Black people for Covid spread in his state pic.twitter.com/CfwajqECLM

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2021

COVID Hits Vaccinated Senators

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-MS), Angus King (I-ME) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO), who have all been fully vaccinated, announced yesterday that they tested positive for the virus.

• All of them reported experiencing only mild symptoms.
• That’s four senators in total who have had breakthrough cases of COVID-19. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) was the first in early August.

Wow!

A jaw-dropping 95% of eligible voters in Georgia are now registered to vote, according to newly released data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

• Georgia now has one of the highest registration rates in the country. Only eight other states had higher rates.
• Automatic voter registration at driver’s license offices was the main driver of the dramatic increase from the registration rate in 2016.

GOP Congressman Challenges Internet Rando To Literally Fight Him, Coward

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) got into a Facebook pissing match with some guy in Alaska named Joel Dolphin (yes, really), during which the congressman invited Dolphin to choose a fighting arena for a throwdown when he travels to Alaska with Rep. Don Young (R-AK) next year.

• “Locate us a ring, or a dojo,” Higgins wrote. “I’ll give you a few rounds to make your point. Be seeing you.”
• The Republican lawmaker ended his missive with an internet mic-drop: “Higgins out.”

Meanwhile In New York

GOP New York City mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa is out here courting the coveted pigeon vote:

I’m out in the streets, shaking hands and wings, so I can learn more about the issues New Yorkers care about pic.twitter.com/xBvwukhKVo

— Curtis Sliwa for NYC Mayor (@CurtisSliwa) August 19, 2021

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