Thousands of voters in Georgia’s third-largest county who received absentee ballots late will not get time to return them, the state’s highest court ruled Monday.

Cobb County, just north of Atlanta, did not mail ballots to about 3,400 voters who requested them until late last week. Under Georgia law, absentee ballots must be returned by the close of polls on Election Day. But a lower court judge ruled last week that the ballots in question could be counted if they were received by this Friday, three days after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday.

The Georgia Supreme Court decision means affected Cobb County residents must vote in person on Election Day, which is Tuesday, or bring their ballots to the county election office by 7 p.m. that day.

The high court decision directs county election officials to notify affected voters via email, text message and a public message on the county election board’s website. Officials are also being ordered to separate and seal ballots received after the last day of Election Day but before 5 p.m. on Friday.

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Board of Elections Chairman Tori Silas said the board will comply with the Supreme Court order, but it is not yet known whether ballots received after Election Day will be counted. He said in a statement that the decision only covers a request for a stay of execution, so election officials will have to wait for the court’s final decision to see whether votes received after Tuesday will be counted.

Election officials in Cobb County were using U.S. Postal Service express mail and UPS overnight delivery to deliver ballots on time, sending ballots in prepaid express return envelopes. More than 1,000 late-returned ballots were sent to people outside Georgia, the Board of Elections said.

Last week, Silas blamed the delay in sending out ballots on faulty equipment and a late surge in absentee ballot requests in the week before the Oct. 25 deadline.

The original decision to extend the deadline stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of three Cobb County voters who said they had not received absentee ballots by mail as of Friday.