Top New Hampshire officials are requesting a halt to a superior court order issued this week on voting requirements, arguing the order was too confusing for towns and cities preparing for the Nov. 6 election.

In a letter emailed to clerks on Wednesday afternoon, Secretary of State Bill Gardner and Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said the office had “received inquiries from local election officials” on how they should proceed after Monday’s order, which promoted new legal action.

“The Superior Court Order, issued two weeks before the Nov. 6 Election, does not provide the clear or specific directives pertaining to the exact voter registration forms that are to be used in advance of Election Day,” the letter read. “The lack of clarity severely jeopardizes our local election officials’ ability to proceed with consistency in the Nov. 6 Election.”

As a result, clerks now are stuck between following the court order or waiting for additional guidance from the Secretary of State’s Office as the clock ticks toward Election Day.

In Hanover, where the presence of Dartmouth College creates a high percentage of affected voters, Town Clerk Betsy McClain was miffed.

“The fact that this ruling came down and there’s no contingency plan in the Secretary of State’s Office is astounding,” she said.

Others said the move by the Secretary of State’s Office only increases the amount of confusion.

“The path forward that secretary of state office should take is making sure that clerks and election officials have the guidance that they need,” said Liz Wester, state director for America Votes. “The state pushing back on the injunction creates more confusion and delay.”

In a motion filed with the Hillsborough County Superior Court on Wednesday, the Attorney General and Secretary of State’s offices are asking for an emergency status conference to clear up the meaning of Monday’s preliminary junction, which put a temporary stop to Senate Bill 3, a voting law passed last year.

That law added new documentation requirements for voters seeking to prove they live in New Hampshire if they moved here within 30 days of an election, and imposed financial penalties for those who did not produce those documents within a set time period after the election. Judge Kenneth Brown ruled on Monday that the requirements were too burdensome and would threaten “to disenfranchise an individual’s right to vote.”

“Given the extraordinarily low rate of documented voter fraud in this state, it is far more likely that more legitimate voters will be dissuaded from voting than illegitimate voters will be prevented,” Brown said in a ruling handed down on Monday.

Brown’s ruling imposed an injunction on the law ahead of the Nov. 6 midterms and directed the state to revert to the 2016 domicile affidavits instead.

The ruling did not clarify whether the change to 2016 documents should apply to registration in the weeks ahead of election day, or just election day itself, the motion said. And it did not detail how the state should inform voters about the changes, and whether it should stop officials from posting now-outdated requirements, the motion argued.

A separate motion requests the judge to delay the preliminary injunction if the questions can’t be answered in time.

Gardner said his office will direct clerks to continue using the forms under the Senate Bill 3 voting law — despite the court order — while the state awaits the court’s instructions.

In Durham, McClain said she planned to continue using the forms created under the new SB3 voting law despite the court ruling, because she has no alternative.

She said the 2016 forms the judge directed the state to use no longer exist.

“We knew this was being litigated. … We knew that a 180-degree (change) 15 days before the election is not out of the realm of the possible,” McClain said. “To not have a plan in place so clerks would have guidance on that day … is extraordinary to me.”

Hopkinton Town Clerk Chuck Gangel read the letter and said his office is “pretty much” prepared either way.

The town doesn’t have a high number of voters who have to prove their residency, making the changes less burdensome either way.

“The Secretary of State’s Office keeps us up to date,” he said, adding that he will review the directive with town’s supervisors of the checklist.

In Henniker, the home of New England College, officials in the Clerk’s Office said they hadn’t seen Gardner’s email by 4 p.m. and had no comment.

It was not immediately clear when the Superior Court might hold an emergency status conference.