PROVIDENCE — The state Board of Elections yesterday asked the Rhode Island Supreme Court to overrule a judge’s order mandating that it set aside photocopies of ballots that do not register a vote during machine recounts.

In the petition, the board’s attorney, Raymond A. Marcaccio, said the Superior Court ruling would significantly delay recounts and increase the possibility of mistakes.

“Every time you do that you’re increasing the chances of human error,” Marcaccio said of the segregating and copying of ballots. “That’s our main concern.”

The ruling came down on Tuesday from Judge Stephen J. Fortunato Jr., who sided with Cranston mayoral candidate Allan W. Fung and City Council candidate Joseph Larisa Jr. of East Providence. Fung and Larisa trail their opponents by small margins, pending recounts of all ballots cast on Nov. 7. (The Board of Elections has indefinitely postponed all recounts.)

A lawyer for both candidates, Angel Taveras, has argued that a manual review of ballots that do not register a vote in an electronic machine could reveal the voter’s intent.

The Board of Elections has cautioned that human scrutiny would inject needless confusion into a process it regards as objective. “The beauty of these machines is that it eliminates that type of activity,” Robert Kando, the board’s executive director, said yesterday. “For us to do that is a big step backward.”