A North Carolina trial judge has upheld decisions by election officials to reject protests by the trailing candidate in a very close state Supreme Court election.

Three counts found an incumbent Democrat won a State Supreme Court race. But the Republican candidate is trying to nullify more than 60,000 votes.

An appeals court agreed Tuesday that a federal trial judge acted properly last month in declining to rule on the eligibility of tens of thousands of voters last fall in an unresolved North Carolina Supreme Court election and returning the matter to state court.

Griffin's electoral challenge followed the Republican National Committee and North Carolina GOP trying in August — and later failing — to have 225,000 North Carolinians purged from the voter rolls over incomplete registrations in state court. A federal court dismissed the claim in October.

In a win for Judge Jefferson Griffin, his challenge to North Carolina Supreme Court seat race will remain in state court, with a federal court retaining jurisdiction of several federal issues, should they remain after state court proceedings are resolved.