THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

But those states determined to prevent you from voting are taking their own sweet time enforcing the courts decree. So close to the election, what might be simple heel dragging becomes an effective way of avoiding a court ruling not to the liking of TPTB.

U.S. voting rights advocates scored a string of courtroom victories this year that rolled back some of the nation's most restrictive voting laws. Now they face another challenge: making sure those rulings are not undermined by officials who oversee elections at the local level.

With early voting already under way ahead of the Nov. 8 election, local officials in several states are trying to enforce restrictions that have been suspended or struck down in court, civil rights advocates say. In some cases, the action appears to be the result of bureaucratic confusion. In other cases, they appear to be actively resisting the law.

"There are still too many places where voting is going to be difficult and confusing, not easy and straightforward," said Leah Aden, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

The foot-dragging by local officials adds another element of uncertainty to what already promises to be a volatile election.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that states with a history of racial discrimination don't have to win approval from the U.S. Justice Department when they want to change the way they conduct elections - the first time the Deep South will be free of federal oversight since 1964.

That same ruling has also hobbled the Justice Department's ability to dispatch observers to potentially troublesome spots, raising concerns that it will be harder to deal with any problems that unfairly stop voters from casting their ballots.

Voters in 14 states will also face new voting restrictions, from scaled-back early voting hours to photo-identification requirements, according to New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. Roughly 10 percent of eligible voters do not have a government-issued photo ID, including a disproportionate share of minority, poor, student and elderly voters.

Voting rights advocates have managed to roll back some of those restrictions in Texas, North Carolina, North Dakota, Kansas, Ohio and Wisconsin, potentially making it easier for millions of people to vote in states that have the potential to determine the outcome of the election.

Not all court challenges have been successful. Civil rights groups in Arizona have failed to defeat a new law that makes it illegal for them to collect absentee ballots by hand, a popular practice in Hispanic and Native American neighborhoods. Republican legislators said the law was needed to combat fraud, though they could cite no examples.

Few people follow the rulings of various courts closely enough to make them general knowledge. Knowing that, the illegal restrictions can still be imposed on those who don't know better.