North Carolina’s Supreme Court has temporarily halted enforcement of a decision by an appeals court that favored a Republican candidate in a close and unresolved November election for the state’s highest court.

The North Carolina Supreme Court on Monday put on hold an appellate court's decision that gave more than 60,000 voters just 15 days to establish their voting eligibility or have the ballots they cast last fall in a close race for a seat on the state's high court thrown out.

North Carolina’s highest court stopped a voter eligibility inquiry in the last uncertified 2024 statewide election. The ruling concerns November’s Supreme Court race between Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs and GOP Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin.