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President Donald Trump has launched legal action as he tries to temporarily stop vote counting in two states, including one that Joe Biden is projected to win, and wants a recount in a third where his election rival has apparently also triumphed.

Mr Biden and his team have said they have lawyers "standing by" to fight any challenge.

The president has vowed to take his case to the US Supreme Court in Washington but what are his claims centred on?

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His team is particularly showing concern and anger about the huge influx of postal or mail-in ballots, which were late to be counted in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania - key states now set to prove crucial in who gets the keys to the White House.

The Trump campaign claims it has:

• Filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Michigan to demand better access to locations where ballots are being processed and counted
• Called for a temporary halt in the counting of votes in both states
• Asked for a recount in Wisconsin - a state where Mr Biden is believed to have won

Michigan Recount Rules

A candidate can request a recount if all of the following conditions are met:

The candidate ran for one of the following offices: president and vice president, state executive (e.g., governor), U.S. Senate, U.S. House, circuit judges, or state senators and state representatives elected from districts that span more than one county.

The request "alleges that the candidate is aggrieved on account of fraud or mistake in the canvass of the votes".

The request "shall contain specific allegations of wrongdoing only if evidence of that wrongdoing is available to the petitioner. If evidence of wrongdoing is not available, the petitioner is only required to allege fraud or a mistake in the petition without further specification."

The request "sets forth as nearly as possible the nature and character of the fraud or mistakes alleged and the counties, cities, or townships and the precincts in which they exist."

The request "specifies the counties, cities, townships, and precincts in which the recount is requested."

The requester is responsible for costs associated with the recount unless the recount changes the election outcome, in which case the costs are refunded. If during the course of a recount, a precinct is deemed not recountable or is not recounted due to the withdrawal of the request, the costs paid by the requester to recount that precinct are refunded.

The deadline to request a recount is no later than 48 hours following completion of the canvass of votes.

The president is ahead of Mr Biden in Pennsylvania but his margin is shrinking as more postal ballots are counted. Michigan is projected to go to Mr Biden.

The Trump campaign said it is suing to temporarily stop ballot counting in Pennsylvania until there is "meaningful transparency".

It also said it is filing lawsuits to prevent Democratic election officials "hiding" ballot counting and processing from Republican poll observers in the state.

The Trump campaign said in a statement: "The eyes of the country are on Pennsylvania, but Pennsylvania has kept eyes off of the absentee ballot counting process all along, and that must stop today."

And despite incomplete results and no projections of a win, the Trump campaign said it is "declaring a victory in Pennsylvania".

A Trump campaign spokesman also said it would seek to intervene in an ongoing state supreme court case involving the deadline for receiving mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania. The state had a total of 3.1 million postal ballots.

Last week the court upheld a decision that mail-in votes could be counted three days after the election - as long as they were postmarked by election day.

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Even before Mr Biden was declared the apparent winner in Wisconsin, Mr Trump's campaign manager said he would "immediately" request a recount due to "reports of irregularities" in several counties.

According to Wisconsin's rules on recounts, the second-place candidate only has the right to request a recount if the election result is within 1% of the winner's total.

NBC News reports Mr Biden picked up 49.4% of votes in the state, while Mr Trump was on 48.8%.

The Biden campaign did not immediately comment on the new lawsuits in Michigan or Pennsylvania over access for campaign observers.

However, the campaign has been seeking donations for what it is calling the "Biden Fight Fund".

"Our legal team is standing by, and they will prevail," campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said earlier on Wednesday.

Postal voting has been a key issue for Mr Trump - something he has been criticising for months as having what he says is the potential to undermine the result.

More than 100 million people voted by post ahead of polling day - a record - with many said to be reluctant to go out in person because of COVID-19.

Mr Trump, 74, said on Wednesday he wanted to ensure any votes cast after the polls closed - ("at 4 o'clock in the morning", as he put it) - would not be counted.

He consistently claimed in the run-up to the big day that there was a risk from the system - and he's now doubled-down on that by saying a "major fraud on our nation" is playing out.

However, there is currently no evidence of that happening. Importantly, Democrat voters are historically more likely to vote by post than Republicans, meaning any early advantage Mr Trump has could be wiped out.

The US Postal Service warned 46 states in July that it could not guarantee all votes would arrive by the cut-off time.

A federal judge in Washington has now ordered US Postal Service inspectors to sweep more than two dozen depots for any ballots - including in Pennsylvania and parts of Wisconsin - and to process them immediately.

Mr Biden, 77, has said it "ain't over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted".

He has called Mr Trump's claims of fraud "outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect".

"Having encouraged Republican efforts in multiple states to prevent the legal counting of these ballots before election day, now Donald Trump is saying these ballots can't be counted after election day either," said Mr Biden.

Under the 12th Amendment, a "contingent election" would be triggered if it is determined that neither candidate has secured a majority of electoral votes - which would see the House of Representatives choose the next president, while the Senate selects the vice president.