“Controversial Congresswoman Ilhan Omar shocked users on social media Tuesday when she claimed ‘You don’t have to be registered to vote in Minnesota’ because the state has ‘same day registration at the polls’… This is a developing story. Check back for updates” says the story titled “NOT A JOKE: Ilhan Omar Tells Residents ‘You Don’t Have to be Registered to Vote’ in Minnesota“, leaving the reader hanging, as if there’s going to be some additional development in the story where the DOJ or the Minnesota Attorney General are suddenly going to announce some sort of investigation into Omar. Or Twitter flags the tweet for election misinformation. Or maybe Omar resigns and goes back to Somalia. You never know.

In the hours before a rally for incumbent Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, a half dozen headstones in a Jewish cemetery in Grand Rapids were spray painted with “TRUMP” and “MAGA”, WWMT CBS-3 News reports.

The vandalism at the Ahavas Achim Cemetery was relatively new, according to local law enforcement.  The site of the rally is about a 20 minute drive to the cemetery. “The desecration at Ahavas Israel is evocative of the febrile political atmosphere our country finds itself in right now. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Time and again, the President of the United States has sided with antisemites, white supremacists, racists, and bigots of all kinds. Now, our country is paying the price. Tomorrow, we will end it,” Noah Arbit, founder and chair of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, said. The Trump campaign reported tens of thousands of people attended his event at the Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids, an event that carried on past midnight. There are no reports of how many people are still waiting for buses to take them back to their cars after the event.

CNN: “The number of people attending today’s White House election night party has been reduced to 250, one source familiar tells CNN. This source added that all guests will receive a rapid test for Covid-19, and each guest will receive a testing bracelet. CNN previously reported that as many as 400 people could attend.”

The Third First Lady, Melania Trump, the third wife of Donald Trump and the mother of his (at least) fifth child from (at least) three different women, casted her vote in person in Florida alone, the Associated Post reports.

The current Mrs. Trump cast her ballot at a West Palm Beach polling place without her husband, who voted during early voting in Florida last week.

Mrs. Trump did not don a mask as she entered the polling place.  It was also not reported if a poll worker demanded to see proof of citizenship or residence in Florida.  The Trumps claim their residence is their Mar-a-Lago resort, which is zoned as a commercial property, not a residence.

“This morning, FBI arrested Timothy Watson, a purported boogaloo member for selling ‘portable wall hangers’ which can be converted to make a gun automatic. According to docs, he has sold to a number of Boogaloo members including one who shot and killed law enforcement His website had a number of boogaloo support language, including saying a portion of sales would go to support Duncan Lamp fund, an explanation of that significance is in the criminal complaint footnote. Mr. Watson also allegedly sold his gun parts to a boogaloo member in Minnesota who was arrested for supporting Hamas. He provided step by step directions in “coded” language on how to make the gun modifications” – GWU Program on Extremism.

AP: “McRib, the fast food sandwich that went viral before viral was a thing, is back. McDonald’s announced Friday that for the first time in eight years it will be offering nationwide its barbeque slathered sandwich with the cult following. The McRib will appear on the menus Dec. 2, for a limited time of course. The McRib is an elusive prize for adherents, who scour the internet for reports of its surfacing at limited locations, and for a short amount of time. There is even a website called the McRib Locator, created to spread the word about McDonald’s restaurants that are offering the boneless pork sandwich served with slivered onions and pickles on top.”

In one of those quirky Election Day traditions that means absolutely nothing, the New Hampshire hamlet of Dixville Notch completed its midnight vote early this morning, casting all five votes for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Axios reports.

Since 1960, the residents of Dixville Notch (population:  12) gather to have eligible voters cast their ballots.  While some politicians consider it good luck to win the first votes cast, Dixville Notch doesn’t have a stellar record of predicting the winner:  In the last 15 elections, they’ve only voted for the winner nine times.

“[An Indian religious] group that claims to have the support of 5 million Hindus says it wants Trump to be re-elected in order to keep India’s main rivals – Pakistan and China – in check. Hours ahead of the U.S. presidential election, people living in and around Thulasendrapuram, the village of Harris’ grandfather, gathered at a temple for special prayers. One local politician conducted an ‘abhishekam’, a practice that involves pouring milk over a Hindu idol while religious verses are recited, in the presence of about 20 villagers, said R. Manikandan, a shopkeeper near the temple. He said more than 15 cars and motorcycles, belonging to reporters working for local and international media outlets, had assembled in Thulasendrapuram to cover the ritual.”

“Nearly two dozen members of a group known as Hindu Sena (Hindu Army) joined a priest wearing saffron robes to conduct fire rituals and chant verses for Trump’s victory. They held up pictures of the leader with one of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi resting to the side. ‘India can fight terrorism only if Trump is around, and both China and Pakistan will stay restrained as long as he is the president,’ the group’s founder, Vishnu Gupta, said by phone” – Reuters.

Nate Cohn: “One small casualty of this election: the RealClearPolitics average. It’s never been perfect, but I’ve cited it in the past as a simple no-questions-asked average. Unfortunately, that’s not possible anymore. RCP’s averages this cycle just haven’t been a fair average of the polling that’s out there. Instead, cut offs are fairly deliberately set to show better results for Trump. Trump may win in the end, but that won’t vindicate RCP. If Trump wins the polls were really, really wrong. I’ll certainly be nothing but honest about that fact.”

“But you don’t get that impression from RCP, since they’re not fairly reflecting the polls. Just go down the list of each RCP average this morning, and ask ‘are the cutoff dates consistent?’ and ‘who would benefit if the cutoff date was a day earlier.’ The answers are ‘no’ and Biden. This has been true for a while now, but they really took it up a couple of notches over the weekend. And unfortunately it’s enough that I won’t be using the site anymore for citing polling averages”.

“The Democratic firm that predicted an election-night ‘red mirage’ for President Trump — an early lead it says that Joe Biden will overtake when mail-in ballots are counted — is standing by its prediction, but with a smaller mirage than expected. Updated modeling from analytics firm Hawkfish, reviewed by Axios, says Trump may look as if he’s on track to cross 270 electoral votes and approach a 286-252 victory. But in the end, it predicts, Biden could win by as much as 334-204, or a more modest 279-259, once all mail-in ballots are counted.”

“Remember, a model is just a model — and if it’s off, the results could be markedly different. The ‘red mirage’ offers a data-based argument for why Americans should not expect to know a winner tonight. They also shouldn’t believe President Trump if he prematurely declares victory, as he’s foreshadowed, or argues that counting legally received ballots is somehow an effort to ‘steal’ the election if backlogs delay the counting. Many states expect delays in counting. Under one updated Hawkfish model, Biden would eventually overtake Trump in the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — but not Georgia, Iowa, Ohio or Texas” – Axios.

The Independent: “Thailand’s government has decided to ban Pornhub and 190 other porn sites, in a move that has prompted a strong backlash from users online. The country’s Digital Minister Puttipong Punnakanta said the ban was part of efforts to restrict access to porn and gambling websites, adding that such content is illegal under the country’s cybercrime law. Following the ban, a closure order appeared on all these sites stating that the content is allegedly ‘guilty according to the Computer Crime Act 2007 by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society’. However, many were not satisfied with the reason and criticised the move, labelling it as censorship and calling for protests. #SavePornHub and another hashtag which translates as #HornyPower trended on Thai Twitter for hours, with tweets making comments or posting memes that the government would be facing greater opposition now beyond the protesters.”

Axios: “If news organizations declare Joe Biden the mathematical president-elect, he plans to address the nation as its new leader, even if President Trump continues to fight in court, advisers tell Axios. Biden advisers learned the lesson of 2000, when Al Gore hung back while George W. Bush declared victory in that contested election, putting the Democrat on the defensive while Bush acted like the winner.”

“So if Biden is declared the winner, he’ll begin forming his government and looking presidential – and won’t yield to doubts Trump might try to sow. Biden’s schedule for Tuesday includes a clue to this posture: He ‘will address the nation on Election Night in Wilmington, Delaware.’ Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters Monday that even if all the votes aren’t counted tonight, the campaign should have ‘a very good sense of where we’re headed'”

“At rallies across the Midwest and Sun Belt swing states, President Donald Trump has been openly discussing murky schemes to prevent legitimate ballots from being counted, escalating threats to disenfranchise millions of American as the weeks-long voting season ends tonight and his pathway to reelection becomes increasingly narrow. ‘The Election should end on Nov. 3, not weeks later!’ the president said on Friday. He repeated the claim at an event in Dubuque, Iowa on Sunday, adding falsely, ‘That’s the way it’s been, and that’s the way it should be.'”

“‘When Donald Trump says, ‘I think I deserve a third term, or I think the election should end on election night, that’s the way it’s always been,’ I don’t think he’s joking. I think we should take him deadly seriously,’ said Democratic senator and top Joe Biden surrogate Chris Coons. He compared Trump’s statements to aspiring autocrats in young democracies that he dealt with when he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on African Affairs. ‘We would rally the international community and say, ‘No, you should not do that. It’s not a good idea. That violates the norms of democracy.’’ But most Republicans, from critics to allies of Trump, have remained publicly silent. It’s not new for Trump’s party brethren to duck and cover when he says something troubling. But after five years of perfecting the art of explaining how they ‘didn’t see the tweet’ — the much parodied talking point to which Republicans on Capitol Hill often resort — it is shocking but not surprising that they aren’t speaking up now, even when the integrity of America’s electoral system is under attack by their party’s leader” – Politico.

Reuters: “Deutsche Bank AG is looking for ways to end its relationship with President Donald Trump after the U.S. elections, as it tires of the negative publicity stemming from the ties, according to three senior bank officials with direct knowledge of the matter. Deutsche Bank has about $340 million in loans outstanding to the Trump Organization, the president’s umbrella group that is currently overseen by his two sons, according to filings made by Trump to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics in July and a senior source within the bank. The three loans, which are against Trump properties and start coming due in two years, are current on payments and personally guaranteed by the president, according to two bank officials.”

“In meetings in recent months, a Deutsche Bank management committee that oversees reputational and other risks for the lender in the Americas region has discussed ways in which it could rid the bank of these last vestiges of the relationship, two of the three bank officials said. The bank has over the years lent Trump more than $2 billion, one of the officials said. One idea that has come up in the meetings: sell the loans in the secondary market, two of the bank officials said. But one of the officials said that idea has not gained traction, in part because it is not clear who would want to buy the loans and the attendant problems that come with it.”

This ad marks the first time the estate of the late, great Ray Charles has allowed his music to be used in a political ad.

Perhaps timing it so she doesn’t become the subject of vitriol during campaign rallies, one of President Trump’s top medical advisors on the coronavirus task force has made her first public statement directly contradicting Trump’s practices during the pandemic, the Washington Post reports.

“We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic … leading to increasing mortality,” Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said in a report circulated internally at the White House. “This is not about lockdowns — It hasn’t been about lockdowns since March or April. It’s about an aggressive balanced approach that is not being implemented.”

Birx’s colleague, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has repeatedly been demeaned and attacked by Donald Trump during campaign rallies.  A Georgia rally started chanting “Fire Fauci” yesterday, although the nation’s top infectious disease expert enjoys a significantly higher amount of public trust in dealing with the pandemic than Trump.

Noted non-scientist and body taking up office space in the West Wing Ivanka Trump told a crowd of about 400 supporters of her father’s campaign that a coronavirus vaccine will be available by the end of the year, the Washington Post reports.

Campaigning for her father in Des Moines, Iowa, Ivanka told the assembled people in the room, where masking and social distancing guidelines were largely ignored, that her daddy had done a great job while in office, reality to the contrary.

“We will defeat the plague and bring back your jobs, and 2021 will be the greatest year in American history,” she said before pivoting to defend her father’s obnoxious manner. “I recognize my father’s communication style is not to everyone else’s taste.  I’m told his tweets can be unfiltered. But the results speak for themselves.”

The second child of her father’s first marriage, Ivanka was joined on stage by incumbent republican Senator Joni Ernst, who spoke for two minutes.  Former White House press secretary and noted propagandist Sarah Hucklebee Sanders also made remarks, which talked about the greatness of her former boss, continuing her habit of lying to the public.