Stand Down From Red Alert 🚨

New: The Texas secretary of state’s office has released some details of what the election “audits” in four counties will entail. They include standard post-election procedures local officials have already undertaken. https://t.co/z5SlCkicYX

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 29, 2021

Remember the "Arizona 'audit' to be repeated everywhere!"? Yeah, not so much.

The secretary of state's documentation explaining the parameters of the reviews notes the first phase includes partial manual counts of ballots and security assessments, which all counties are already required to undergo.

The second phase, which is slated for “spring 2022,” will be an examination of election records “to ensure election administration procedures were properly followed.” That includes reviews of records of voting machine accuracy tests, rosters for early voting, forms detailing chain of custody for sealed ballot boxes and other election materials maintained by the counties.

But the secretary of state also indicates it will review records that counties already provide to the office, including the “reasonable impediment declarations” filled out by voters who indicate they lack one of the photo IDs the state requires voters to present to cast a ballot.

Although there probably is a reason for this; and it's not a good one:

In announcing the reviews, the secretary of state’s office said it was focusing its efforts on Texas’ two largest Democrat counties, Harris and Dallas, and two largest Republican counties, Tarrant and Collin. But both longtime Republican strongholds show signs of inching away from the GOP. Tarrant narrowly voted Democratic at the top of the ticket in 2018 and 2020. In Collin County, Trump saw his margin of victory fall from 16% in 2016 to 4.6% in 2020. 

The devil is still in the details:

In releasing the details about the reviews, a spokesperson for the secretary of state emphasized the office would not be “hiring or contracting with an outside firm to conduct these audits.”

The months following Trump’s loss have been roiled by Republican efforts to pursue election reviews across the country. The reviews announced by the Texas secretary of state’s office came just weeks after Republicans in the Texas Senate showed an interest in passing legislation that would pave the way for county audits of the 2020 general election. Time ran out on the last special legislative session during which it was considered.

But the secretary of state’s office on Tuesday said its reviews could trigger full manual recounts of ballots cast in some precincts or polling locations if the office finds “irregularities or deviations from election administration procedures” that could have affected the accuracy of a county’s electronic ballot count. 

But nobody's inviting Cyber Ninja's for a sleepover.  Not yet, anyway.  And does this mean we actually know what's going on?  No; and that's the point;

Officials in Harris County on Tuesday morning said they remained unaware of what the audits would cover despite comments by Abbott that the reviews “actually began months ago.” Now, it appears the governor was, at least in part, referring to processes counties are separately required by law to complete. 

Government as three-card monte; but nobody knows how to work the hustle.