You have it backwards. The Supreme Court told them to keep it.
So, the Montgomery court basically said they had to preserve this stuff, then the Alabaman Secretary of State, John Merrill, a Republican, went to court to get the stay, thereby the court said they don't need to keep this stuff. It's the REPUBLICANS who don't want to keep this stuff.
"At 1:36 p.m. Monday, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge
issued an order directing Alabama election officials to preserve all digital ballot images created at polling places across the state today.
Montgomery County Circuit Court ordered them to "preserve all digital ballot images"
"But at 4:32 p.m. Monday, attorneys for Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and Ed Packard, the state administrator of elections, filed an "emergency motion to stay" that order, which the state Supreme Court granted minutes after Merrill and Packard's motion was filed."
John Merrill filed an "emergency motion to stay" which the Supreme Court granted.
"By granting the stay, the court effectively told the state that it does not in fact have to preserve the digital ballot images"
The stay means they don't "have to preserve the digital ballot images".
If I have it wrong, then the source from the OP has it wrong too.