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NYPD hauled off 50 protesters in handcuffs during election unrest in the city, and the most egregious, disgusting offense -- seen on camera, anyway -- was a woman who spit in an officer's face.

24-year-old Devina Singh yelled "F**k you, fascist!" in the cop's face twice before spitting, then she immediately got arrested. She was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, violation of local law and harassment.

Singh was among a group of demonstrators who got hostile and clashed with cops in Manhattan late Wednesday night into Thursday. Law enforcement sources tell us most of the arrests made in the chaos were for disorderly conduct and obstruction of governmental administration.

The violence followed a peaceful protest nearby in NYC's Washington Square Park with people chanting, "Count the vote" -- seemingly in response to President Trump's outrage over the election process and allegations of voting fraud in several states.

We're told the protest escalated as it moved to the West Village around 7:30 PM Wednesday, resulting in dozens more people getting arrested.

Meanwhile, across the country in Portland ... Oregon Governor Kate Brown got tough with protests in that city and deployed the National Guard to squash the unrest when a riot was declared by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.

Americans had Canada on the mind with the fate of the presidential election hanging in the balance, thinking about moving there when it looked like Trump might get re-elected.

Folks in the States rushed to a Canadian government website on Election Night, boning up on immigration and pathways to citizenship, with the site seeing a 300% boost in traffic from the United States ... TMZ has learned.

People logged onto the web and found their way to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada's page, with the first wave arriving around 7 PM ET on Election Night, when the polls started closing.

With Trump and Biden duking it out for Electoral College votes deep into the night, Americans kept researching a move to Canada. The increase in visits to the IRCC site continued into Wednesday morning, with no clear White House winner in sight and Trump sowing doubt about election results.

Americans, whether they were window shopping or dead serious, were greeted with loads of information on how to apply for permanent resident status in Canada and ultimately become a Canadian citizen.

In short, a permanent resident is someone who immigrates to Canada but is not a citizen ... and folks who want to become Canadian citizens must first be permanent residents, live in Canada for 3 out of the last 5 years, file taxes, pass a citizenship test and prove language skills.

Yeah, that's a lot of hoops to jump through just because of an election.

In addition to your Average Joe, celebs have been threatening to move out of the country if Trump got 4 more years.

Remember ... George Lopez said "we'll all go back," Amy Schumer was ready to pack her bags for Spain, Cher said she'd move to Jupiter and Tommy Lee had his eyes on Greece.

Joe Biden and President Trump aren't the only ones feeling the heat of this crazy election -- voters are emotionally on the edge, too, and crisis hotline operators are saving more lives than usual.

Take Crisis Text Line for example -- the 24/7 general-purpose help text line says it's seen a major uptick over the past 48 hours or so with people hitting 'em up about concerns about the election. Not that their operators can do anything about counting ballots, but they do help users cope with anxiety.

CTL says between 8 PM-12 AM on election night, their overall text volume was up 18% compared to Monday night, and convos with election-centric keywords were up more than 120%!!!

HopeLine -- which specializes in suicide, crisis and mental health -- tells us while they haven't seen a massive wave of callers just yet ... they're fully expecting it in the coming days as a winner is announced -- and despondent voters seek professional help.

We're told they spoke to nearly 200 people during the week leading up to Tuesday, and of those who were talking politics ... many were Biden voters concerned about the pandemic. Their trained active listeners use breathing exercises, object identifying in a room and just good old-fashioned small talk to help talk down stressed callers.

A group of Donald Trump supporters are up in arms about the mail-in ballot counting process in Detroit ... and they're trying like hell to disrupt it.

A frenzy's been whipped up by several Republican vote challengers at the TCF Convention Center, where workers are trying to tally thousands of absentee votes for Detroiters while having to deal with the madness.

Cops are keeping many of the aggressive challengers at bay due to the counting area being at capacity, but that's not stopping them from banging on the windows and chanting, "STOP THE COUNT! STOP THE COUNT!"

The pro-Trump challengers are apparently claiming they are being kept out, but Democratic challengers are as well. Under the state's election rules ... each group is allowed to have 134 challenges.

As you may know ... the President and his campaign have been making baseless claims about voter fraud in multiple states that carry significant importance to the winner of the election, and clearly, it's sparked outrage among his supporters in Detroit.

Joe Biden just gave what sounded a lot like a victory speech -- despite having a ways to go -- but it also sounded extremely Presidential with a message of unity.

The Democratic candidate -- who's now just 17 electoral college votes away from being declared the official winner -- spoke in Wilmington, DE with his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, by his side. The takeaway here ... he thinks he's got this in the bag.

Biden made sure to note he was NOT declaring a win just yet -- unlike President Trump did Tuesday night -- while at the same time expressing confidence most of the outstanding swing states are leaning his way.

The other goal of his speech was to address the blatant political divide in the country. Sounding like he might on his first day in the White House, JB said IF he wins, he aims to govern for every American.

Biden's comments here were much different in tone from Trump's defiant, accusatory one early Wednesday morning. Of course, you could say that's the difference between leading and trailing at the polls.

This is Biden's second public appearance since several polls closed Tuesday night -- with millions of votes still needing to be counted in a handful of states. Plus, Trump's already demanding a recount in at least Wisconsin ... if not 2-3 other states too.

President Trump predicted a Supreme Court battle over the 2020 election -- but his road to the high justices won't be one he can barrel down ... according to a prominent legal scholar.

Erwin Chemerinsky -- the Dean of UC Berkeley's School of Law -- hopped on "TMZ Live" Wednesday to discuss Trump's vow to take this fight over election results all the way to SCOTUS (even as it continues to play out) and he basically tells us ... not so fast, DT, quite literally.

Trump wants to rush his grievances to the Supreme Court, especially as it pertains to Pennsylvania. The commonwealth's recent ballot submission decisions -- from its own Supreme Court -- have drawn scrutiny ... but Chemerinsky says POTUS still can't hopscotch his way to SCOTUS without going through lower courts first.

However, EC also laid out a scenario where Trump could appeal directly to a Supreme Court Justice -- but even then he says it's not likely Trump would get a final answer on the ballot process in PA for a while.

If and when it does land on the Supreme Court's doorstep, Chemerinsky played that scenario out too ... and suggested the newly installed Justice Amy Coney Barrett could be the key.

Trump is getting way ahead of himself here -- as many predicted he would -- but that hasn't stopped him ratcheting up the rhetoric and sowing doubt about the legitimacy of the voting process ... especially in states he appears to be losing as of late Wednesday morning.

Pennsylvania might be on the table for a fight, along with Wisconsin ... which is close enough that Trump's ready to demand a recount.

People who voted for 4 more years of Donald Trump are racists, even if they don't realize it yet ... at least that's activist Marc Lamont Hill's take on the election results.

Marc joined us on "TMZ Live" Wednesday and made a statement many will find controversial about people who marked their ballots for Trump. He says some of those voters are just racist, but he adds ... others who don't see themselves as racist, should take a harder look.

The way Marc sees things ... it's one thing to look at the candidates and think they're all racist and make the best choice you can. But, for the BET host, it's an entirely different ballgame when you knowingly select the guy who defended white nationalists and wouldn't denounce folks like David Duke.

Marc says if you prioritized tax rates and a stimulus check over racism, then racism clearly just isn't a big deal to you. He suggests it's something with which Trump supporters just need to come to grips.

Votes are still being counted, but Trump's already approaching 67 million votes, and MLH says those numbers are alarming if you're Black.

The White House's coronavirus crisis last month is sparking a serious sanitizing mission ... and feds are spending thousands to keep the place virus-free going forward.

Regardless of who wins the Presidential election -- as we know, that's still very much up in the air -- a cleaning crew is going to be spraying down the place with a disinfectant mist.

According to federal financial docs, obtained by TMZ, the Public Building Service agency's dropping nearly $29,000 on the cleaning service in the East and West Wing "due to Covid at the White House."

Coincidentally, the cleaning contract started on Election Day and runs through November 2, 2021.

As you know ... President Trump tested positive for COVID-19 in early October about a week after a large ceremony at the Rose Garden to announce his new Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett.

Along with the Prez, several other members of his staff and guests at the event also contracted the virus, and Trump was hospitalized for a few days before returning to the White House -- maskless, of course.

The GAP had its heart in the right place with its post-election tweet urging unity but it clearly failed to read the room ... admitting it was just "too soon."

A spokesperson for the clothing retailer tells TMZ ... the intention of its social media post featuring a red and blue hoodie "was to show the power of unity." The spokesperson added, "It was just too soon for this message. We remain optimistic that our country will come together to drive positive change for all."

The tweet backfired almost immediately ... with one person replying, "A GREAT example of why it's smart to be paused on social right now." Tons of people responded with "read the room" and another user said, "I don't think a zipped hoodie is going to cut it when everyone is this tired, broke, and scared."

Chrissy Teigen also chimed in on the since-deleted post. For the record ... the hoodie was NOT for sale.

President Trump firmly believes HE won the election, and thinks the only way Joe Biden can win is if there's shady ballot business ... so, he's going to the Supreme Court, and setting America up for a battle royal.

It was well after 2 AM ET when POTUS spoke at the White House ... rattling off all the states where he'd won, and said he was getting ready for a big victory celebration when it was suddenly called off.

Trump was incensed, feeling he was well on his way to being declared the winner based on victories in Florida, Texas and Ohio. He also feels he has a big enough lead in North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan to be declared the winner in those states ... which no media outlet is doing yet.

The incumbent is especially pissed about PA, where at the time of his speech he was beating Biden by more than 600,000 votes -- a lead he believes is unsurmountable. That's not how experts see it, with much of Philadelphia's ballots still not counted. Trump said he's going to SCOTUS anyway, because he suspects "surprise ballots," presumably cast for Biden, might be found at 4 AM.

The President also accused the Biden campaign of running to court, which, as far as the public knows, hasn't happened. Biden spoke about 90 minutes earlier, and was confident he was "on track" to win ... but made no mention of alleged cheating or the need for lawyers.

What's odd is Trump said he wants "all voting to stop." Voting has stopped, but what's happening now -- and clearly not in a manner to his liking -- is the counting of ballots. BTW, that counting might give Trump a victory in Arizona, where Fox News has projected Biden to win.

This is really the worst-case scenario for America. Neither candidate has the necessary 270 electoral college votes yet, but Trump is declaring victory and already accusing the Dems of cheating -- and now the Supreme Court, with his newly confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett, could be in play.

It all adds up to days, if not weeks and months of political strife, and possible civil unrest, ahead for the nation.

Folks in New Jersey have green on the mind -- they are eager to brush up on their marijuana skills after voting to legalize it, and their Google searches show it.

The term "how to roll a joint" saw a nearly 3,000% jump in the ultimate search engine during a solid 4 hours Tuesday evening as the Garden State overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure to make it legal to grow, smoke and sell herb starting in 2021.

Of course, like California, you'll have to be 21 to do all that ... and there's still some red tape they gotta go through -- like setting up the rules of this trade -- before anyone can partake. Still, a whole new batch of tokers are obviously itching to bust out rolling papers.

Also trending in Jersey ... the term "when will weed be legal in New Jersey." So, yeah, they're ready to burn.

Several other states are saying puff puff pass with Jersey, too -- Arizona, Montana and South Dakota also voted to approve pot measures.

Colorado, Washington, Cali, Oregon and Illinois have been leading the nation in cashing in on marijuana users ... having gone fully legal with it years ago.

The Huntington Beach Bad Boy is now a Huntington Beach City Council member.

MMA legend Tito Ortiz dominated the competition in Tuesday's election -- clinching 1 of the 3 available City Council seats in his home town.

The 45-year-old UFC Hall of Famer finished with 34,901 votes (14.3%) -- the most amount of votes out of the 15 candidates running for the open seats.

The next closest was Dan Kalmick, Huntington Beach Planning Commissioner, who finished with 11% of the vote.

Ortiz celebrated with a small gathering in Huntington Beach -- passionately thanking the locals for supporting him.

Tito is a hardcore Trump supporter who previously told TMZ Sports he received political support from the Trump family.

Before the election, Ortiz pushed a COVID conspiracy theory -- explaining why he believes the virus was created by man and is being weaponized by "the left."

"It's population control by the left," Tito said last month on the "I Only Touch Greatness" podcast.

"They’re trying to take out all of the older people who are getting social security and so forth."

President Trump revving up for a legal battle over the election is already triggering peaceful protests across the country ... and it's feeling like an eerie, relative calm before the storm.

Hundreds of protesters made their voice heard loud and clear late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning outside the White House. The demonstration went down while the election results were still very much up in the air -- and before Trump's controversial speech -- with the majority of the crowd being Joe Biden supporters -- but a handful were there to back the current Prez.

Nothing got out of hand, though, as many had anticipated. Much of Washington D.C.'s business district has been boarded up this week, but cops say they only made 4 arrests related to the protest.

As we've been reporting ... Beverly Hills was also bracing for the worst on election night, and a huge crowd of Trump supporters did line Canon Drive in that city.

The protesters were definitely loud, but there was no violence ... with cops only detaining one person there. Meanwhile, it was a little tenser in downtown L.A., where around 40 people were arrested after the LAPD declared an unlawful assembly.

Madison Cawthorn is only 25 years old, but that didn't stop him from being elected to represent North Carolina's 11th Congressional District ... making him the youngest member of the House in modern U.S. history.

Cawthorn -- a staunch Republican who's anti-abortion, pro-gun and shares President Trump's views on immigrants -- defeated Democrat Moe Davis for the seat ... according to CNN's projection.

His first message to his constituents after his historic victory was a sharp jab across the aisle -- "Cry more, lib." It's the kinda football spiking that would make Trump proud.

Before Cawthorn, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's win in New York in 2018 made her the youngest female elected member in modern history at 29 years, 2 months and 22 days.

However, the new NC Rep. isn't the youngest Congressman of all time ... that title belongs to William Charles Cole Claiborne of Tennessee, elected in 1797 at age 22 despite not meeting the constitutional age requirement.

Rules. NBD in the 18th century.

BTW, if Cawthorn looks familiar, it might be because you remember him from a maskless meeting with Trump back in July shortly after the Prez said it was "patriotic" to wear a mask amid the pandemic.

Props to Patrick Mahomes -- who, along with his foundation, split the $100,000 cost to turn Arrowhead Stadium into a polling place.

Mahomes said he brought up the idea to Chiefs' president Mark Donovan -- but one of the issues they faced was funding the cost of additional voting machines.

So, Mahomes (along with his 15 and the Mahomies foundation) and the Chiefs reportedly agreed to split the $100,000 cost to turn Arrowhead into a voting location.

"I thought it was very important, not only just to get as many people out to vote as possible, but also to use a place as Arrowhead where we have a lot of fun, show a lot of love and unity with people are coming together, and use it as a place where we can come together to vote and use our voice," Mahomes said Tuesday to Jim Trotter on the "Huddle & Flow" podcast.

"I thought Arrowhead was the perfect place for it, and the Chiefs were all aboard with it and some other guys on the team, we all just made our efforts strong and really got it to be a central point for everybody to go vote."

The good news ... Arrowhead got a pretty decent turnout -- with multiple Chiefs players and head coach Andy Reid stopping by to cast their votes.

A professional hotline dedicated to reporting funny business at the polls was inundated with calls alleging voter intimidation this election cycle ... far surpassing anything they saw 4 years ago.

Election Protection is a safe haven for whistleblowers who see something fishy or downright illegal at polling places all over the country -- and according to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (a nonprofit that manages the hotline) ... 2020 was crazy busy.

A rep for the Lawyers' Committee tells TMZ ... since the month of October, their collection of 40k-plus legal volunteers fielded upwards of 115k calls about potential voter suppression -- which pales in comparison to the total 150k or so calls they got for the ENTIRE year in 2016.

As of this past weekend -- when early voting was in full swing in a majority of states -- we're told EP got a call from out from Hanover, VA about what appeared to be a militia group holding a parade in front of a polling place ... which freaked out some people.

Lawyers' Committee adds that officials on the scene noted there were BLM counter-protesters on hand too -- and that voters were feeling uneasy about the whole thing in general. We're told local authorities were alerted to check it out and make sure nobody was being harassed.

On Tuesday, Lawyers' Committee tells us they received several calls regarding alleged voter intimidation in Florida ... from counties like Hillsborough, Brevard, Palm Beach and more. In Orange County, we're told they got a report of 5 pickup trucks blocking the entrance to a polling place there ... something Election Protection says they flagged to officials.

There are more incidents they were made aware of on Election Day, including pollsters taking temp checks in Virginia -- which some folks thought was meant to keep people from voting -- as well as a heavy reliance on paper ballots, misappropriated voting machines and delayed opening times at polling places in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio and other states.