Washington (CNN) Thousands of people who were removed from Georgia's voter rolls this week for lack of civic participation were put back into "inactive" status following an announcement from the secretary of state on Thursday.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced a deadline extension until December 2021 for 22,000 voters whose registrations had been canceled due to failure to update their registrations in the last several years. The decision was made just hours before the state was to head to court over the purge.

"We are proactively taking additional steps to prevent any confusion come the day of the election," Raffensperger said in a statement. "We are taking the unprecedented step to give certain individuals who have been identified as having moved and in need of updating their information additional time to vote or contact their county elections office to update their registration."

The voters were removed under the state's "use it or lose it" policy, which allows registrations to be canceled after voters fail to participate in elections for several years. The state claims that "the affected individuals voted or had some other type of contact with the voter-registration system in early 2012 but not since."

The sudden decision was met with applause by Fair Fight Action -- a voting rights organization founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams -- who filed an emergency motion on Monday and is the plaintiff in the case against the state.

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