Precincts — which can include a few hundred to a few thousand voters — make it easier to spot this urban-vs.-rural disparity. These detailed neighborhood by neighborhood results make it clear how racial and socioeconomic differences play out at the ballot box.

For a window into how this polarization is affecting this year’s election, just look at North Carolina. It’s one of the most coveted battlegrounds in the country — RealClearPolitics puts Donald Trump up by just 0.8 points — and it’s facing a number of other contentious electoral battles. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, a supporter of the highly controversial law requiring transgender individuals to use the bathroom of their birth gender, is in a tight reelection battle. So is Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican with a narrow lead in his reelection contest, according to recent polling; his race could determine which party controls the Senate. And that’s not to mention the controversy surrounding the recently struck down voter ID laws.

The number of Democrats and Republicans registered to vote in the state has barely budged since 2008 — decreasing by 5 percent and increasing by 3 percent respectively — but the number of independents has increased by nearly half.