North Carolina’s highest court ruled on Friday that thousands of overseas and military voters must fix issues with their ballots within 30 days or risk having them tossed out. The decision is the latest twist in a five-month legal battle over a seat on that court, and could potentially overturn the results of the November election.

But the State Supreme Court also ruled that roughly 60,000 ballots at the center of the case — from voters who, through no fault of their own, had information missing in their registration — must be counted. That decision overturned a lower-court ruling.

The 4-to-2 decision on Friday was in response to a plea from Justice Allison Riggs, the Democratic incumbent in the election. She had challenged a state appeals court decision last week requiring roughly 65,000 North Carolina voters to verify their eligibility within a 15-day window or have their ballots thrown out. Many of the affected voters live in Democratic-leaning counties.

Justice Riggs is one of two Democrats on the seven-member Supreme Court, and has recused herself from the case. Two recounts by the State Board of Elections reaffirmed that she won the November election by 734 votes, but her Republican opponent, Judge Jefferson Griffin, has contested the result. He is currently a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

Judge Griffin has argued that about 60,000 of the voters under scrutiny were ineligible to vote because they had not supplied certain required identification when they registered — even though the omission was because of administrative errors. The state’s Republican Party has stood firmly behind his challenge, and the race is the only 2024 statewide election in the nation that remains uncertified.

On Friday, the State Supreme Court said that “mistakes made by negligent election officials in registering citizens who are otherwise eligible to vote” cannot be the sole basis for depriving a citizen of his or her right to vote, and that those 60,000 votes must be counted.

Military and overseas voters who did not provide the ID required when obtaining an absentee ballot — which one justice estimated to be 2,000 to 7,000 voters — will have 30 days instead of 15 to fix any issues. Though state law requires providing ID to obtain an absentee ballot, the State Board of Elections exempted military and overseas voters from this requirement. Judge Griffin challenged that decision.

The State Supreme Court also ruled that the nearly 300 “Never Residents” voters — those who have never lived in North Carolina but are registered to vote there — should have their ballots tossed out because they were ineligible to cast them. These voters typically include the children of military parents who turn 18 while their family is stationed abroad, or missionaries, according to voting rights experts.

A bipartisan state law passed in 2011 says that such people are allowed to vote in North Carolina. But the ruling on Friday disagreed, citing the State Constitution.

Taken together, the number of voters whose ballots remain in question exceeds the 734-vote margin by which Justice Riggs won the November election.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.