A state judge in Nevada has denied an attempt by the state republican Party and the Trump campaign to stop the processing and counting of early votes in Clark County, CNN reports.

The lawsuit contends that the election commission has not granted the Trump campaign sufficient access to oversee the processing of ballots, from the time of the arrival to the envelope’s opening, to inspection, to tallying.

The state allows a specific number of observers from each major Party into processing sites.  The Trump campaign and republicans are suing to have more observers than allotted because they believe there is widespread voter fraud.  The plaintiffs wanted to install multiple cameras throughout each processing place.

Florida: Biden 47 – Trump 42
Ohio: Biden 47 – Trump 43
National: Biden 50 – Trump 39
Read more here.

“A group of survivalists in southern Colorado are stepping up their preparations for societal collapse as Election Day nears. Fortitude Ranch, set up by a former US air force intelligence officer, has activated what Fox News termed ‘collapse mode’ for the first time in its history. Drew Miller, CEO of Fortitude Ranch, has not responded to the Independent’s question as to what that actually meant., but from the website it appears that ‘collapse’ mode means any member of the community can move from their homes to the site, free of charge. Members of Fortitude Ranch pay $1,000 annually for up to 10 days a year on the grounds, and during ‘collapse’ times can come and stay for free.”

“Fortitude Ranch also has sites in West Virginia and Wisconsin, with plans to expand into Nevada. The site is staffed round-the-clock by paid employees, rather than volunteers, and has guard towers positioned at the perimeter. Inside the compound are wooden log cabins, used as holiday homes during the quiet times, but equipped with underground bunkers” – The Independent.

An elevated commuter train in Spijkenisse, Netherlands, jumped off the rails and miraculously rested on a sculpture of a whale’s tail 30 feet above the ground, likely saving the life of the train’s driver, the Associated Press reports.

A WHALE OF A CATCH: A metro train blasts through its stop near the Dutch city of Rotterdam but is saved by the fluke of a giant whale sculpture. https://t.co/U20Z6U2jzm

— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) November 2, 2020

The train crashed through the barrier at the end of its route and flew off the rail, coming to a rest on the plastic sculpture.

“I’m surprised it’s so strong,” the designer of the sculpture, Maarten Struijs, told Dutch broadcaster RTL said. “If plastic has been standing for 20 years, you don’t expect it to hold a metro carriage.”

I PREPAID Millions of Dollars in FEDERAL INCOME TAXES!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2020

NBC News: “Democrat Joe Biden holds a narrow lead over President Donald Trump in the all-important battleground state of Pennsylvania, while the two candidates are tied in Arizona, according to the final NBC News/Marist state polls of the 2020 presidential election. In Pennsylvania, which Trump won four years ago, Biden is ahead by 5 points among likely voters, 51 percent to 46 percent, although that advantage is within that poll’s margin of error; a combined 3 percent say they’re undecided or are voting for someone else. In Arizona, which Trump won by more than 3 points in 2016, the candidates are tied at 48 percent each among likely voters, with a combined 4 percent undecided or voting for someone else.”

Reuters: “A federal judge in Texas on Monday appeared skeptical of an attempt by Republicans to throw out about 127,000 votes already cast in the U.S. presidential election at drive-through voting sites in Houston, a Democratic-leaning area. On the eve of Election Day, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen said the Republicans who brought the case faced an ‘uphill road’ in convincing him that the votes should be voided.”

“The judge said the plaintiffs needed to show that Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, a Democrat, had an ‘evil motive’ in allowing drive-through voting as an alternative during the coronavirus pandemic. Hanen also questioned the last-minute timing of the case. ‘Didn’t we test this in the primaries this summer?’ The judge asked a lawyer for the plaintiffs, adding: ‘Why am I just getting this case?’ The lawsuit was brought on Wednesday by plaintiffs including state Representative Steve Toth, conservative activist Steve Hotze, and judicial candidate Sharon Hemphill.”

Richard Grennell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, tweeted side-by-side photographs of Democratic presidential candidate as evidence that Biden is hypocritical about wearing masks.

The only problem:  people quickly pointed out that the photo of Biden on a plane was from 2019, prior to the pandemic, reports the Independent.

https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1323021094773788672

The final Bitecofer model has been released, giving Biden a 94.6% likelihood of winning the Electoral College with at least 334 Electoral College votes.

Unlike many models which measure voter enthusiasm for a candidate, the Bitecofer model incorporates “negative enthusiasm” and “negative partisanship” against the opposing nominee.

Bitecofer also has Democrats picking up five seats in the Senate, with the Georgia contests still undecided–likely because the model sees no candidate in either race getting the required 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.

NBC’s Julie Tsirkin reported from Rome, GA: “Hours after the President departed for Florida, people were left for hours waiting for buses to take them to their cars. Some of the folks left stranded were older and disabled. Multiple people tried to hitch rides from strangers amid the pandemic. The single, narrow road to get in and out of the rally site was shared by pedestrians, cars, busses and emergency vehicles. A chaotic scene where hundreds lined the road a mile up from where President Trump held his rally in Rome, GA — attempting to exit the event. Some people were sitting and laying on the ground. It’s 46 degrees and windy in the area tonight.”

UVA Center for Politics: “Our final Electoral College ratings show Joe Biden at 321 electoral votes and Donald Trump at 217. Democrats are narrow favorites to capture a Senate majority, 50-48 with two Toss-ups — the two Georgia races, both of which we think are likely to go to runoffs. We have Democrats netting 10 seats in the House. The only governorship we have flipping is Montana, which would be a gain for Republicans.”

A new pre-election poll by USC Dornsife shows Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden with a double-digit lead in the national race over incumbent republican Donald Trump, with major shifts in key groups that propelled Trump to his 2016 victory, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The daily tracking poll shows Biden with a 54% to 43% edge, a gap that has been consistent over the last two months.  The consistency in polling reflects a very stable electorate that hasn’t been swayed by Trump’s rotating slate of grievances.

“So much has happened in the past 10 months of this year — impeachment, George Floyd’s murder, Black Lives Matter, fires and floods, RBG’s death, and yet the presidential trial heat has not changed,” veteran Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who oversees that poll with Republican pollster Bill McInturff, wrote in an email. “The voters know the stakes, they care and they have been very consistent and constant in their vote since January.”

Wall Street Journal: “Support for President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden in a group of battleground states has remained unchanged in recent days, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, finding little evidence of the kind of last-minute shift toward Mr. Trump that helped him win four years ago. The poll, conducted on Sunday in 12 states in which the election is most competitive, finds Mr. Biden leading, 51% to 46%, essentially unchanged from a survey late last week. The new survey underscored an important difference between Mr. Trump’s first campaign for the White House and his re-election fight this year. After watching Mr. Trump for four years, voter opinions of the president have been set for months, and the race appears to have little of the late volatility that marked the 2016 election.”

Friendly’s eateries, known for their ice cream creations and classic diner food, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, joining a long list of casual dining restaurants looking for protections from the financial impact of the coronavirus, CNN reports.

Friendly’s has 130 locations with approximately 9,000 employees, primarily on the East Coast.  It has shrunk from 400 locations at its peak in 2011, when it also had to reorganize under Chapter 11 after the Great Recession.

“Unfortunately, like many restaurant businesses, our progress was suddenly interrupted by the catastrophic impact of Covid-19, which caused a decline in revenue as dine-in operations ceased for months and re-opened with limited capacity,” said CEO George Michel.

Jury selection has begun for the trial of the white nationalist terrorist charged as the mastermind of the 2017 bombing of a mosque in suburban Minneapolis, ABC News reports.

Michael Hari of Clarence, Minnesota, is charged with multiple civil rights and hate crimes after a white national group he led, called the White Rabbits, detonated a pipe bomb of Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington.

Right-wing media and commentators speculated that the bombing was a “false flag” operation designed to generate sympathy for Muslims, who were being targeted by President Trump through a Muslim ban at the time. 

Whistleblower Edward Snowden, who dumped an unfiltered tranche of classified information into the public domain and then sought asylum in Russia, is seeking Russian citizenship, Politico reports.

Snowden stated that his wife is pregnant and that he wants dual citizenship to enjoy the protections of both governments.  He was recently granted permanent resident status in Russia two weeks ago.

“After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our son,” Snowden tweeted. “That’s why, in this era of pandemics and closed borders, we’re applying for dual US-Russian citizenship.”

Axios: “Twitter on Monday provided more details about its policies around tweets that declare election results, and named the seven outlets it will lean on to help it determine whether a race is officially called. The list includes ABC News, AP, CNN, CBS News, Decision Desk HQ, Fox News and NBC News — all outlets that experts agree have verified, unbiased decision desks calling elections. Some conservatives have alleged that Twitter is biased against them. In the past few weeks, data from the Stanford Cable TV Analyzer shows that Fox News has discussed Jack Dorsey and Big Tech censorship at length. Fox News’ Decision Desk is considered very authoritative and is highly-respected amongst media and politics insiders. By including Fox’ News’ decision desk in this list, Twitter is saying that it believes its decision desk is verified and legitimate.”

“Biden is up in our final Pennsylvania Monmouth poll. One thing to keep in mind if you see Trump up by 20 to 25 points in the count there tomorrow night. Biden has a much bigger edge in the early vote. He can still win by 5 to 7 points IF all those ballots are counted” – Monmouth University polls director Patrick Murray via Twitter, describing the results of their last 2020 Pennsylvania poll, which found Biden ahead of Trump in the state 51 to 44.