Grace Bell Hardison, a 100-year-old African-American who was disenfranchised for decades by Jim Crow laws but has been a faithful voter for over two decades, received a notice recently that her registration was being challenged by a white man who lives in her town. The National Voter Registration Act bars the government from invalidating a registration within 90 days of an election. But he probably did not know that when he filed his challenge. Caught up in the narrative of “voter fraud,” he joined generations of white men before him who thought they were righteously upholding the law when they acted to prevent black people from voting.

After hearing testimony about Ms. Hardison’s case, one among thousands in only three North Carolina counties, Judge Loretta Biggs of Federal District Court called such challenges “insane.” On Friday, Judge Biggs ordered the three counties to restore voter registrations canceled during the 90 days preceding Election Day. She also issued a restraining order against any further attempts to purge voters for this election.

But our struggle for the ballot continues. Here in the South, there are still organized hate groups that hear a call to arms in the covert racism of partisan power plays. When members of our N.A.A.C.P. branch in Chatham County organized a Moral March to the polls last week, they found “KKK” and a swastika painted on the route they would have to walk to reach the early voting site. Onlookers not only parroted derogatory phrases Mr. Trump has used for months, but also photographed voters as they marched past. This happened in the county that lynched six African-Americans during the Jim Crow era.

Conjuring the demons of our past, Mr. Trump has unleashed forces he neither understands nor can control. While he would like to focus on an F.B.I. investigation of his opponent (at least as long as he thinks it might benefit him), democracy desperately needs all of us to trust the decisions of our federal courts and our local law enforcement officials who are protecting us against real voter fraud.

Democracy itself is on the ballot in 2016. With far fewer resources than we have today, our mothers and fathers spilled their blood for the possibility of democracy. We cannot turn back now. We must press on and vote as never before for a more perfect union and a future that includes all Americans.