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The guy who took a pickax to Donald Trump's Hollywood star planned to dangle a giant American flag out the window of a Trump Hotel penthouse ... until cops thwarted his plot.

We're told James Otis was intercepted by Vegas police over the weekend when he tried to pull a Wile E. Coyote scheme at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas ... at $2,300 per night. Otis dyed his hair, checked in under his middle name, brought some hardware, a glass cutter, a drill and a 10 foot American flag.

Otis tells us he planned to barricade himself in the room, cut the window, hang the flag outside from the 64th floor -- all in protest of Trump. It never happened ... police busted in Saturday and escorted him from the building.

Donald Trump's gripe that the election is riddled with voter fraud might bear some truth in SoCal -- more than 1,100 dead people are still registered to vote ... according to a report.

KCBS-LA Investigative Reporter David Goldstein ran a story Monday night revealing 265 corpses voted in Ventura, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside and L.A. counties over the last 8 years -- most recently, in June's primary.

According to the report, SoCal voting records also show more than 900 other dead people are still registered to vote this Election Day, but it appears no one's voted on their behalf.

L.A. County Registrar's Dean Logan insists no dead people have voted on his watch.

Donald Trump missed out on a fine display of the First Amendment when 2 topless women burst into his polling place with a juicy message scrawled on their bods.

The women barged into the midtown Manhattan polling station -- where Trump later voted -- chanting, "Out of our polls, Trump. Out of our polls, Trump." They'd also written "Trump" and "Grab your balls" on their bare torsos.

They were almost immediately arrested and reportedly booked for electioneering -- a misdemeanor prohibiting the display of badges and signs supporting a candidate at a polling place.

Btw, the toplessness -- totally legal in NY state.

Donald Trump appeared to have a sweet tooth on his way to the ballot box.

The Donald made his way into a polling place in Midtown Manhattan Tuesday where a throng of reporters were there to watch him vote.

Trump stopped at a cupcake station and shelled out more than the buck it cost ... but left the delectability behind.

#KiddosForTrump

If Donald Trump wins the presidency, his first order of business might be a pardon for his son, who broke New York State law by posting a shot of his ballot.

Eric Trump tweeted a pic of his filled-in ballot, proudly showing off his vote for his dad. He tweeted to 560,000 followers ... "It is an incredible honor to vote for my father!" But the problem is that's illegal.

Someone apparently pointed that out to the 32-year-old Trump ... he immediately deleted the tweet.

The law prevents voters from publicizing their choices at the polls. It's a misdemeanor punishable by up to $1,000 fine and a year in jail.

Hollywood's coming out in droves to cast ballots for the 2016 election, and flaunting their "I Voted" pride.

Hillary Clinton's big day started -- where else? -- at the voting booth.

The Democratic presidential nominee strolled into a polling place in her hometown of Chappaqua, NY ... with hubby Bill Clinton at her side.

#ItsTime

Donald Trump lives large in his Manhattan high-rise ... in a 3 story penthouse that resembles Versailles, but if he gets the big 270 he will leave the gold leaf in the Big Apple.

Trump tells TMZ, "I think the White House is such a special place and it has such a special meaning for the American people ... nothing would change in the White House."

Trump has famously gold plated/leafed doors, moldings and even ceilings in his homes, but says there's a place for that and it's not at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., although there is a place for it up the street at his new hotel.

As for Hillary ... she's already proven in the 8 years she called it home ... the White House stays the White House.

It's expensive as hell to protect presidential candidates like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump ... which explains why the Secret Service drops the loser FAST ... but maybe not as fast as you think.

The federal government shells out about $40k PER DAY to protect Hillary -- code name "Evergreen" -- and Donald -- code name "Mogul." The cost of protecting candidates in 2012 reportedly approached $113 million.

There's no hard-and-fast rule on when the Secret Service stops protecting the loser. It's done on a case-by-case ... but typically, agents say sayonara to the loser about a week after the election. The asterisk in this case is Hillary -- as a former First Lady she gets lifetime protection, anyway.

But this wacky election season has been anything but typical ... and with rampant terrorist threats it's possible the detail sticks around a little longer.

Hillary Clinton pulled out the big guns ... from the Prez on down ... for the final night before the election.

From Independence Hall in Philadelphia where the Obamas, Bruce Springsteen, Bill, Chelsea and others rallied around their candidate, to a midnight rally in Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, where Lady Gaga and Bon Jovi showed their support, to Washington Square Park in NYC, where Madonna threw a shindig.

Out with a bang.

Lorde has officially made it out of her teens, and she did it with BFF Taylor Swift showing her how to milk paparazzi camera shots like a 20-something "it" girl should.

Lorde took a dive into ZZ's Clam Bar in NYC Monday night with Taylor, Karlie Kloss, Jack Antonoff and Lena Dunham along to celebrate her big 2-0.

Everyone looked great, but the New Zealand pop star was the clear knockout.

Piers Morgan says there will be holy hell to pay among Hollywood celebs if Trump wins the election.

We got Piers out in NYC on election eve, and he said England is scratching its collective head over the presidential race.

Piers, who appeared on 'Celebrity Apprentice,' knows Donald well, and says hell hath not fury like a celebrity who turned on him.

Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin and even Bon Jovi are all frozen in suspense for Election Day ... but probably more so for the mannequin challenge here.

The biggest stars on the New England Patriots are strongly Team Trump -- so says Donald who claims Tom Brady called and Bill Belichick wrote him a letter pledging their championship support.

In fact, Trump told his crowd in New Hampshire Monday night that he didn't expect the note he got from Coach Belichick to be so strong and was pleasantly surprised by his public endorsement.

He also said Brady gave him full permission to go public with his support -- finally.

Trump read Belichick's letter to the crowd -- and it's strong.

Madonna is pulling one of her sons into the family biz ... of music and politics.

11-year-old David stuck by his mom's side during her low-key concert/Hillary Clinton rally Monday night in NYC's Washington Square Park

It's interesting to watch his reaction to Madonna's singing, and political preaching about Donald Trump and HRC.