North Carolina’s Supreme Court has ruled that tens of thousands of cast ballots challenged by the trailing candidate in November’s election for a seat on the court must remain in the election count.

Democratic Justice Allison Riggs won her November election by 734 votes, but the court put into play enough votes to possibly hand the seat to her Republican challenger.

The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled on Friday that more than 60,000 ballots cast in November by voters in a close race for a seat on the state's high court could be counted, but it left open the possibility of discounting thousands of others.