Election 2020 updates: Biden warns of 'dark winter,' pushes masks in pandemic plan

Trump's legal team announced lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Michigan to halt vote counting until courts can enforce rules that permit campaign observers to watch the ballots being opened and counted.

"They're not letting our poll watchers watch the polls, not letting them inside," Eric Trump said at a news conference. "They're trying to cheat."

The legal action would not impact the vote tallies in either state, where elections officials are still counting ballots.

Myrna Perez, the director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program, called the suit a "nuisance" saying it is "designed to distract Americans from the counting process."

"The courts are unlikely to take this seriously," Perez said.

The Biden campaign slammed the lawsuits as "pathetic" and "fruitless attempts."

-ABC News' Olivia Rubin, Alex Hosenball, Benjamin Siegel and Matthew Mosk

ABC News projects Biden will win Michigan.

Michigan has 16 electoral votes, bringing Biden’s total count up to 253, including Wisconsin -- where ABC is characterizing him as the apparent winner. Trump, meanwhile, has 214. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

Lawyers for Trump have filed with the Supreme Court seeking to join a pending lawsuit brought by the Pennsylvania GOP seeking to challenge a three-day mail ballot deadline extension. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has previously rejected the Pennsylvania Republicans' requests to block the extension, but four justices last month did signal openness to potentially take up the case on the merits after Tuesday.  

That cert petition has been pending and is not on any timeline for a decision. By adding himself as a party, Trump seems to be attempting to boost the chances the Court will take it up. 

"Given last night's results, the vote in Pennsylvania may well determine the next President of the United States. And this Court, not the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, should have the final say on the relevant and dispositive legal questions," the president's counsels wrote in their filing.  

The controversy stems from a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision, which initially granted the extension. Republicans have said the matter of counting votes should be left to the state legislature not the state's highest court.

It remains unclear if the Supreme Court will take up the matter. It's also unclear whether the justices' involvement would have any impact on the outcome in Pennsylvania.  

The universe of votes arriving Wednesday, Thursday and Friday is not yet known, nor is the ultimate margin of votes between Biden and Trump in Pennsylvania and whether those late-arriving ballots would sway the results one way or the other. 

-ABC News’ John Santucci, Benjamin Siegel and Devin Dwyer

Joe Biden spoke to the public Wednesday, saying, "it's clear that we're winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes."

Biden clarified, "I'm not here to declare that we've won, but I am here to report when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners."

"Of special significance to me is that we’ve won with the majority of the American people," Biden said. "And every indication is that the majority will grow. We have a popular vote lead of nearly 3 million votes, and every indication is that will grow."

Biden said it's important for the nation to unite once the election is finalized.

"To make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies," he said.

"We the people will not be silenced. We the people will not be bullied. We the people will not surrender," Biden said. "My friends, I'm confident we'll emerge victorious. But this will not be my victory alone or our victory alone: it’ll be a victory for the American people."