The North Carolina Court of Appeals issued a stay Friday in Republican groups’ lawsuit challenging more than 60,000 ballots cast in the Nov. 5 election. The court order arrived as GOP state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin pursues a separate legal action challenging the same ballots. Election officials requested the stay in Kivett v. North Carolina State Board of Elections, a suit filed on Dec. 31 by the Wake County and North Carolina Republican Party organizations, the Republican National Committee, and two individual voters.