That could be, but there are other more obvious benefits.
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Psychological framing - prevents people from fully relaxing and feeling as though things are back to normal. Forces them to submit in a small way, punching their ticket mentally to be "invested" in the narrative that is presented.
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Creates a reliance that can be leveraged closer to the election to re-shut things down, or at the least justify mail-in voting via mask shortages, or discovering a new type of mask is needed, etc.