In a victory for the Republican National Committee, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that thousands of voters whose mail-in ballots were delayed will not have additional time to return them.

The court’s ruling overturned a lower judge’s ruling that had granted 3,000 voters an extension of the deadline to mail ballots after Cobb County election officials admitted they missed the deadline to mail them in.

The deadline to receive mail-in ballots in Georgia is Election Day, but the lower judge had given those voters an extension to be postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 8, the same Deadline for overseas ballots.

The Republican National Committee appealed the ruling, saying it was a violation of the election code and that voters still had other ways to vote, including in person.

The Georgia Supreme Court ordered Cobb’s board to “keep separate” absentee ballots from those voters received after the Election Day deadline but before Nov. 8 “in a secure, sealed container, separate from other voted ballots”.

Cobb County had previously been ordered to send out all late ballots by Nov. 1 with express shipping and next-day return envelopes.

The court also ordered the board to notify voters by email, text message or public announcement of the change.