RALEIGH, N.C. — A judge Wednesday threw out plans for a new statewide election for agriculture commissioner, the latest maddening turn in a dispute that has dragged on for more than two months.

Judge James Spencer told the State Board of Elections, which last month ordered the new vote, to find another solution to resolve the election.

Republican Steve Troxler leads Democratic incumbent Britt Cobb by 2,287 votes out of more than 3 million cast, but 4,438 ballots were lost in one county due to an error by a voting machine.

Troxler presented the judge on Monday with 1,352 affidavits from voters in the county who said their lost ballots contained votes for the Republican. An attorney for Troxler said the affidavits proved Cobb could not have overtaken Troxler among the lost votes and that a statewide election is unnecessary.

Troxler said the board should meet immediately and name him the winner so he can be sworn in at Saturday's inauguration of other elected officials.

"This ruling was a clear victory for the majority of North Carolinians who participated in the 2004 election," he said.

Spencer also ruled the elections board broke the law by calling for the statewide election with only three "yes" votes from the five-member board. Spencer said the law is clear that four votes are needed to call a new election. The three "yes" votes were made by the Democrats on the board.

The board called a statewide election after another judge overturned its plan for a revote in just the county where the ballots were lost.

"What occurred here was an attempt at an impermissible end-run around a statute that is clear and controlling," Spencer wrote. "The result was unlawful and will not be permitted to stand."

Board chairman Larry Leake, a Democrat, has defended the board's actions, saying it upheld the law.

It was not immediately clear what the board's next move will be. The panel could attempt to order a new statewide election, ask the 4,438 voters whose ballots were lost to revote, or certify Troxler as the winner.

Cobb, though saying he was as "frustrated with this process as everyone else," suggested the General Assembly could choose the winner as the state's constitution allows. Democrats control the House and Senate.