UPDATED: 7:05 p.m.
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Trump campaign is taking legal action to stop the vote count in Pennsylvania over what it says is a lack of transparency.
The campaign is taking issue with ballots received after Election Day.
Under current guidance from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, ballots can be counted as long as they arrive by 5 p.m. on Friday. However, the U.S. Supreme Court may review that decision, so those ballots are being kept separate from ones received before or on Election Day.
The Trump campaign is moving to intervene in the existing litigation, adding that the U.S. Supreme Court must “resolve this crucial contested legal question.”
The Trump campaign is also suing to stop election officials from “hiding the ballot counting,” according to a release from Justin Clark, deputy Trump campaign manager.
He claims Republican poll watchers were forced to stay 25 feet or more away from the counting process in Philadelphia, “leaving no meaningful way whatsoever for our observers to do their jobs,” he said.
The campaign is suing to “temporarily halt counting until there is meaningful transparency.”
The Trump campaign also accuses Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar illegally moving the deadline for first-time mail-in ballot voters to provide a form of ID.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf condemned the Trump campaign for filing suit, noting Philadelphia election officials are administering the “highest degree of transparency” by providing a public livestream of the ballot-counting process.
“Pennsylvania is going to fight every single attempt to disenfranchise voters and continue to administer a free and fair election,” Wolf said in a statement. “Our election officials at the state and local level should be free to do their jobs without intimidation or attacks. These attempts to subvert the democratic process are disgraceful.”
The Philadelphia Bar Association echoed the governor. Chancellor Hon. A. Michael Snyder said in a statement that there has been no evidence that the increased method of voting by mail is fraudulent.
“Pennsylvania, in particular, has been targeted for these challenges,” he said. “We believe that it is essential that Pennsylvanians, and indeed all Americans, be confident in the safety and validity of mail-in ballots. The process of such voting is defined by law. There is no evidence to support the allegation that these processes are not being followed.”
The Trump campaign scheduled a press conference for Wednesday afternoon outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, where the ballots are still being counted. International media gathered to cover it, but the event was suddenly canceled just as protesters from a "Count Every Vote" march arrived on the scene.
So reporters from around the world turned their cameras on the protesters, capturing their impassioned pleas to count every vote.
An hour later, the Trump campaign announced the press conference had been moved to Northeast airport, where Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said the campaign was taking several different actions.
“We are going to continue the lawsuit here, we're going to bring a second one and then we're going to bring a federal lawsuit and we're going to take a very good look at whether we bring this nationally,” he said.
Meanwhile, county officials across the state continue to count ballots, in hopes of determining which candidate has, in fact, won Pennsylvania.