What had transformed a normally moribund bureaucratic meeting into a heated encounter? A little over two weeks ago, the federal Fourth Circuit Court struck down the sweeping changes to voting laws North Carolina’s Republican-led government made in 2013, finding the law was intended to be discriminate against black voters. Among the rules the court struck down were a requirement to show photo ID to vote, a reduction in early voting, and an end to same-day voter registration. Opponents of voter ID rules around the country hailed the ruling as a huge victory and a landmark decision. In many ways, it was.

But the ruling also placed decisions about how to handle early voting back with county boards of elections, where early-voting plans have become the latest partisan battleground in the struggle over when and how people can vote. Democrats and voting advocates charge that Republicans are trying to use the county boards as a way to achieve many of the same discriminatory effects that the federal court struck down. They can point to a memo from the executive director of the state GOP to Republican board members, calling for them to push through “party line changes” to voting plans. The decisions could have a large impact in North Carolina, which has become a key swing state in the presidential election.

Under the old law, North Carolina had 17 days of early voting. The 2013 changes reduced that to 10 days, but the law also required counties to keep the same total number of early voting hours as in 2012, as measured by the total hours at every early-voting site. The Fourth Circuit ruled that the state had to restore the seven lost days of early voting, but it left the method of doing that up to the counties and did not mandate a certain number of hours. The result has been that several of the state’s largest counties have made decisions that cut the number of locations for early voting or the hours for early voting as compared to 2012, despite a growing population. Voter advocates complain that these steps make a mockery of the judges’ ruling.

“This was exactly our worry, that they were slapped down at the state level, so now they want to go to the local level,” said Bob Hall, who is the executive director of the nonpartisan voting-rights organization Democracy NC. “We’ve been educating people about the importance of this, and mobilizing people to attend meetings. There’s been more turnout at these meetings than any in the past.”

The 2013 law was passed shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder invalidated a part of the Voting Rights Act that required some jurisdictions with a history of discrimination to “preclear” changes to voting laws with the U.S. Department of Justice. The Republican-backed law took direct aim at options that were particularly popular with black voters, who also vote overwhelmingly Democratic, and the law’s critics argued that it was a direct attempt at suppressing votes among blacks and other Democratic-friendly populations, including students and the poor. Experts say that working-class voters are more likely to use early voting (especially on weekends) because it’s harder for them to get off work on Tuesdays; poor voters are more likely to move frequently and thus take advantage of same-day registration. Some voting experts also say early voting is important for guaranteeing that polling places aren’t overwhelmed with long lines on Election Day. The law’s advocates argued restrictions were essential to fight fraud, although there’s almost no evidence of fraud being committed. A challenge to the law fell short in federal district court, but the circuit court ruled against the state in a scathing decision.