Oct. 30 (UPI) — The North Carolina Court of Appeals has unanimously rejected the Republican National Committee’s challenge to certain overseas and military absentee ballots, handing the Republican Party another legal defeat in its effort to limit ballot counting in battleground states ahead of next week’s presidential election.

The RNC, the North Carolina Republican Party and two voters sued the state’s Board of Elections early this month, asking the court to block a law that allows overseas residents whose parent or guardian was a North Carolina resident to vote, even if they never resided in the state.

The Republicans argued the bipartisan rule opened the state up to voter fraud.

Last week, North Carolina Superior Court Judge John Smith ruled against the Republicans, stating they failed to produce any evidence showing that the rule has been used for fraud.

An appeal was subsequently filed, which a three-judge panel of the appeals court unanimously rejected on Tuesday.

North Carolina is a critical battleground state in the race for the White House. Officials on Tuesday announced that more than 3.2 million ballots have already been cast by North Carolinians.

Among these are 15,364 absentee ballots.

The court’s announcement on Tuesday came after a federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed a similar lawsuit challenging that state’s overseas mail-in ballots.

Last week, a similar lawsuit in Michigan was also dismissed.