The stakes are high in part because North Carolina has been through a series of significant political shifts over the last few years. After decades in which Democrats mostly dominated state politics, the GOP won control of the General Assembly in 2010 and then of the governor’s mansion two years later, with McCrory’s election. Republicans embarked on an aggressive program of conservative reforms. The most nationally noticed of those was HB 2, the so-called bathroom bill that, among other things, required transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates. McCrory’s deficit appears to be in part a result of backlash to that law, and the economic repercussions for the state, which saw businesses cancel expansions, entertainers boycott concerts, and sports tournaments abandon the state.

But the battle over the results of the election is more directly tied to—and really ought to be seen as simply the latest battle in—a long war over voting rights. In 2013, as soon as the Supreme Court struck down several provisions of the Voting Rights Act, North Carolina Republicans passed a new law regulating voting in the state. Among other things, the law required voters to show a photo ID when voting, ended same-day registration, and shortened the early-voting period. The North Carolina law was described by some analysts as the most sweeping in the nation, but it fits with a wave of such laws that have been passed or proposed in states around the nation, mostly by conservative politicians who argue they’re necessary to safeguard the sanctity of elections. But there is very little evidence of widespread voter fraud, and less evidence that such measures prevent what fraud there is.

A coalition of groups, including the North Carolina NAACP and the Department of Justice, sued the state over the law, and after losing at the district court level, scored a resounding victory at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which struck down most of the law, finding that it was specifically intended to suppress the votes of minority voters who vote overwhelming Democratic. That meant voting in November was conducted—for the most part—under the pre-2013 laws.

Now McCrory and his allies are challenging the tally in the election, suggesting that fraud is responsible for Cooper’s advantage. In essence, the battle over the McCrory-Cooper race is another major battle in that campaign. If Cooper wins, it will put a Democrat in the governor’s mansion—albeit still with strong Republican majorities in the legislature—and slow the conservative revolution. But if McCrory can somehow come back and win, it would not only preserve those conservative changes but also offer an opportunity to prove that fraud is real.

One of the more readily apparent problems with the McCrory team’s claims of widespread fraud is that several other statewide Republican candidates won solid victories, including Donald Trump, Senator Richard Burr, and Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest. But McCrory and his allies have several avenues to try to win him reelection. Here’s a quick rundown.