A North Carolina trial judge on Friday upheld decisions by election officials to reject protests by the trailing candidate in a very close state Supreme Court election who wants tens of thousands of contested ballots removed from the race tallies.

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 has agreed that a federal trial judge acted properly last month in declining to rule on the eligibility of voters in an unresolved North Carolina Supreme Court election.