Three legislative primary election disputes will be scrutinized by the state’s highest court, even as the justices consider a separate but overriding matter: whether the court is the proper place for the recount reviews.

“A question has been raised regarding the proper tribunal for resolving legislative ballot disputes in primary elections,” the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said in a procedural order dated Tuesday.

That issue revolves around constitutional questions over whether the House and Senate are final judges of their own elections.

“There is no question that the court does not have the authority to resolve ballot disputes in general elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate. … The disputes presented here, however, involve primary elections,” said the court, which sits in Portland.

The order, setting a July 12 deadline for briefs on the question of the court’s jurisdiction, went on to cite several provisions of law that left the matter open to interpretation in the case of primary elections.

“Although the court has on at least one prior occasion adjudicated a primary ballot dispute, the jurisdictional issue has never been addressed by the court,” the procedural order over Chief Justice Leigh Saufley’s name said.

In the order, the court asked Maine’s attorney general to file a brief “that addresses the constitutional authority of the judicial branch and of the legislative branch to resolve the present disputes.”

In the meantime, “because time is of the essence,” the order said, “the court will simultaneously proceed on the pending ballot disputes.”

On that track, Justice Paul Rudman was assigned to “coordinate the gathering of facts and legal arguments regarding the individual ballots in dispute.”

The procedural order concluded by saying that, “following the presentation of facts and any oral and written argument through Justice Rudman, we will resolve the dispute with regard to each of the three disputed races if we conclude that the Court has jurisdiction to do so.”

One undecided election stems from the recount of June 8 voting in the Senate District 20 Republican contest between Dana Dow of Waldoboro and Leslie Fossel of Alna that gave each candidate 1,834 votes.

Four additional ballots, however, remained in dispute.

Another election referred to the court focuses on Democratic write-in candidate Kim Bagley of Machias in Senate District 29. Needing a minimum of 200 votes to earn a place on the November ballot, she was awarded 173 votes on Election Day last month.

In a recount of 279 ballots that were marked in some way, Bagley claimed 211 as votes for her. State elections officials said those 211 ballots, and 68 ballots that were not identified as having potential votes for Bagley, would be held for court review.

A third case sent to the court for determination traces to a recount in the House District 137 Democratic primary election between Richard Rhames and Alan Casavant, both of Biddeford that left Rhames ahead by two votes with three ballots disputed.