The NC Supreme Court election battle is being sent back to the state court by a federal judge.

On Tuesday, North Carolina's highest court blocked the certification of the election results between Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs and GOP challenger Jefferson Griffin, who lost the general election. Despite two recounts, one statewide machine recount and a partial hand-to-eye recount of ballots from randomly selected early voting sites and Election Day precincts in each county, the results still showed Riggs in the lead. The Democrat is now contending that 60,000 ballots cast should be invalidated, which would change the outcome of the election.

An eight-year term on the Supreme Court awaits the ultimate winner, with five of the seven current justices being registered Republicans.

Griffin's challenges to most of the ballots were based on voter registration records that lacked either a driver's license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number, which has been required in registration applications since 2004. Prior to the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002, voter registration forms did not clearly require the last four digits of a Social Security number or a driver's license number.

Despite the inability to validate a person's last four Social Security numbers or driver's license digits, it is still legal to vote. The state elections administration office will assign a special identification number to the person if they present a HAVA document, such as a utility bill.

Griffin is challenging votes cast by overseas voters who have never lived in the U.S. but whose parents were deemed North Carolina residents and by military or overseas voters who did not provide copies of photo identification with their ballots. According to federal law, overseas voters are exempt from providing photo identification with their ballots.

Three weeks ago, Griffin, a judge on the intermediate-level state Court of Appeals, had lawyers request intervention from the state Supreme Court.

The elections board promptly transferred the matter to federal court, stating that Griffin's appeals pertained to federal voting laws and rights.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Richard Myers concurred with Griffin's stance and sent the case back to the state Supreme Court.

Griffin's protests, according to Myers, a Trump nominee to the bench, raised unsettled questions of state law and had tenuous connections to federal law.

The state Supreme Court granted a temporary stay hours later when Griffin's attorneys requested it.

"Expeditiously address this matter concerning election certification as there is no stay from federal court," Tuesday's order read.

Riggs recused herself from the matter, while Associate Justice Anita Earls, the other Democrat on the court, opposed the stay in part because the "public interest requires that the Court not interfere with the ordinary course of democratic processes as set by statute and the state constitution."

The state board and Riggs' attorneys filed appeals notices for Myers' decision with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The state board later requested the appeals court to direct Myers to withdraw the litigation from the state Supreme Court and prevent its return to the state court until the matter is resolved through appeal.

The Republican-majority state Supreme Court would essentially be asked to decide the winner for one of its own seats, barring intervention by federal appeals judges.

The State Board of Elections dismissed Griffin's written protests challenging the ballots last month, which initiated a timeline in which the board would issue a certificate confirming Riggs' election this Friday. However, Tuesday's order stops such certification and tells Griffin and the board to file legal briefs with the justices over the next two weeks.

Riggs' democratic allies have accused Griffin and the state GOP of attempting to invalidate legitimate election outcomes.

According to Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton, Riggs "deserves her certificate of election and we are only in this position due to Jefferson Griffin refusing to accept the will of the people," as stated in a news release.

The election board that rejected Griffin's complaints consists of three Democrats and two Republicans.

In recent years, the Supreme Court in the ninth-largest state has been a focal point for partisan disputes in legal battles over redistricting, voter identification, and other voting rights.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.