An NBC attorney objected to the elections supervisor's camera ban, calling the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board meeting "illegal."

RIVIERA BEACH — Breaking from normal practice, the Palm Beach County elections supervisor banned media from filming and photographing the high-profile midterm election ballot review process amid allegations of “incompetence” by Gov. Rick Scott.

The camera ban prompted an attorney for NBC Universal to interrupt the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board and object to the meeting, calling it “illegal.”

Tensions flared Friday morning when Bucher threatened to have camera operators and newspaper reporters arrested for filming ballot tabulation as Palm Beach County. The meeting at least half a dozen television cameras and even more reporters as Palm Beach County is one of the last in Florida to report unofficial results in an election with three tight statewide races. Bucher accused several reporters of illegally taking pictures and videos of signatures on the envelopes of mail ballots.

Reporters repeatedly assured Bucher that they were filming the board members from a safe distance as they examined ballots and decided whether to toss or count them. Signatures were not visible in any Palm Beach Post photos.

Still, Bucher insisted that she’d bring officers to forcibly remove any member of the media who filmed the process.

Despite objections from reporters, the canvassing board insisted that the meeting not be filmed or photographed.

“There is no way the canvassing board can determine or ascertain what those cameras, those recording devices are recording,” said Judge August Bonavita, chair of the canvassing board. “We have to focus exclusively on what’s in front of us. We can’t pay attention to your cameras.”

Five Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies watched the meeting both from inside the room and behind the glass windows lead inside. Under threat of arrest and removal from the meeting, reporters shut down their cameras.

NBC attorney Karen Williams interrupted the three member canvassing board Friday afternoon to object to the camera ban.

"This meeting is illegal," Williams said, before a heated exchange with Bucher’s attorney, Natalie Kato.

“You cannot shut down the canvassing board,” Kato quickly replied. “Ma’am, at this point you are distributing the canvassing board.”

Bucher’s ban on filming the ballot-counting process is a break from usual media access to canvassing board meetings. Bucher held a recount in August for a Boca Raton City Council race and imposed no such ban.

In 2000, during the infamous George Bush-Al Gore recount, newspapers published countless images of the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board reviewing ballots.

A frustrated Bucher imposed the new rule one day after Scott, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, filed suit accusing her of refusing to allow his campaign officials to personally witness the duplication and processing of ballots.

Palm Beach and Broward counties continued to count ballots Friday, which drew criticism from high-ranking Republicans, including President Donald Trump, who vowed on Twitter to send lawyers to Broward County to “expose the FRAUD!”

Scott, who leads his opponent, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, by less than 15,000 votes, said in a statement that Bucher was "forcing people to stand behind a glass wall with limited visibility and no ability to hear what is going on.”

Bucher, a Democrat, said the lawsuit took aim at her because of Palm Beach County’s “demographics.” Palm Beach County has more Democrats on the voter roll than Republicans.

“I just felt that its very unfortunate that come of the highest elected officials in our country are trying to disrupt our democracy because they don’t like the demographics of our voters,” Bucher told reporters on Friday morning. “I would wish that they would allow us to continue to count our ballots. We’re just doing our job in accordance with our law.”