The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that about 60,000 votes will be counted in the November election for a seat on the high court after they were challenged over the voters not providing identification during registration.

The court unanimously decided to count the ballots on Friday, after North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, the Republican candidate in the race, challenged the votes.

The state Supreme Court is made up of five Republicans and two Democrats. However, Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs, the incumbent in the race, recused herself from the case.

More than 5.5 million ballots were cast in the state Supreme Court race, and a full machine recount and a partial hand recount of the election showed Griffin trailing behind Riggs by 734 votes. On election night, Griffin led Riggs by 9,851 votes. Provisional and absentee ballots that qualified were then added to the totals, which swung the race by 10,585 votes.

Griffin and state Republicans argued that 60,000 ballots should be rejected because ineligible voters fraudulently cast them. The allegations included voters who allegedly didn’t have a Social Security number or a driver’s license number in their voter registration records and overseas voters who failed to provide photo identification with their ballots and haven’t lived in North Carolina.

The court ruled 4-2 that another roughly 5,500 overseas voters who did not provide identification would be allowed 30 days to fix their ballots, and 267 voters who have never resided in the state would have their votes removed.

The Democrat-run North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) didn't ensure that the voters whose ballots were challenged had provided the required identification upon registering to vote, according to the court's ruling.

“To the extent that the registrations of voters in the first category are incomplete, the Board is primarily, if not totally, responsible,” the court stated. Despite the NCSBE learning of the issue in 2023, the court said it “did nothing, however, to ensure that any past violations were remedied.”

“The board’s inattention and failure to dutifully conform its conduct to the law’s requirements is deeply troubling,” the ruling continued. “Nevertheless, our precedent on this issue is clear. Because the responsibility for the technical defects in the voters’ registration rests with the Board and not the voters, the wholesale voiding of ballots cast by individuals who subsequently proved their identity to the Board by complying with the voter identification law would undermine the principle that ‘this is a government of the people, in which the will of the people — the majority — legally expressed, must govern.’”

The court noted that the voters whose ballots were challenged provided identification when casting their ballots, even though they didn't when they registered to vote.

The NCSBE released a statement on Saturday, after the court's ruling.

"In a prior decision by the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the court would have required challenged voters who had allegedly 'incomplete' registrations to take certain actions to have their votes remain in the count in the supreme court contest in the 2024 general election," the NCBSE said. "Today’s order from the Supreme Court changes that. Voters allegedly having 'incomplete' registrations will no longer have their votes impacted."

"The State Board understands there may be further proceedings in federal court before this matter is fully resolved," the statement later added. "State Board of Elections staff are continuing to review the effect of these decisions and, at the appropriate time, will provide instructions for county boards of elections and affected voters on how to comply with the decisions. This protest does not affect these voters’ selections in any other contest on the ballot."