Boner Candidate #1: THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT DOESN’T NEED TO KNOW IF I’M SICK.
On social media, in rallies and at campuses across the state, growing groups of Utahns are declaring that they won’t get tested for COVID-19 — even if they have symptoms. Some say they don’t want to contribute to the rising numbers that could push their schools to close. Others don’t want to be forced to quarantine for two weeks. A few suggest the results wouldn’t be accurate anyway and insist the severity of the pandemic is a hoax. And one state lawmaker is refusing because he worries it would put him “on the radar” if he tests positive. “The health department doesn’t need to know if I’m sick or not,” said Rep. Mark Strong, a Republican from Bluffdale. These individuals are Utah’s test deniers. And public health officials worry that they’re making the state’s already bad situation with the virus worse. Just one anti-tester, they warn, has the potential to cause significant amounts of spread without any way to trace where it’s coming from — or any way to control it.
Take a case at Brigham Young University as an example. The school has been a hot spot, with the highest rates of COVID-19 of any college in the state. And several students there have been adamantly against getting tested, including those who started a petition against randomized testing and other requirements. Ellie Crook, 19, lives with one of them.
Boner Candidate #2: YEAH WE PUT THOSE BALLOT BOXES AROUND.
State officials in California have ordered an investigation into more than 50 deceptively labeled “official” drop boxes.Mike Blake/Reuters The California Republican Party has admitted responsibility for placing more than 50 deceptively labeled “official” drop boxes for mail-in ballots in Los Angeles, Fresno and Orange Counties — an action that state officials said was illegal and could lead to voter fraud. The dark gray metal boxes have been popping up over the past two weeks near churches, gun shops and Republican Party offices, mostly in conservative areas of a deep-blue state, affixed with a white paper label identifying them as either an “Official Ballot Drop off Box” or a “Ballot Drop Box.” To the average voter, they are virtually indistinguishable from drop-off sites sanctioned by the state, which are governed by strict regulations intended to prevent the partisan manipulation of ballots. The actions of the largely marginalized state party come at a moment when Republicans and Democrats are engaged in a bitter national struggle over voting rights, with President Trump’s allies accusing Democrats in Minnesota and elsewhere of undermining the integrity of the electoral process by expanding absentee voting and other measures to increase ballot access.
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