The supposed "actual evidence" is what we are arguing about right now. At the end of May, the places that would institute a mask mandate two months later fell

The supposed "actual evidence" is what we are arguing about right now. At the end of May, the places that would institute a mask mandate two months later fell below the other places. Then they stayed below the other places. Attributing that to the mandates is bordering on absurdity. We aren't talking about a week. We're talking about two months. That's long before people are preparing for a mandate that nobody is even considering yet. You might as well say, "Places that will eventually have mask mandates have higher infection rates two months prior to the mandates."