A line of voters waits outside Beatties Ford Library. This article is made possible through a partnership between WFAE and Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. This article is available for reprint under the terms of our republishing policy. North Carolina’s Black voter turnout in the 2020 general election ticked up 4% from 2016. The turnout for Black votes overall was 68% , according to State Board of Elections data. One possible reason? It comes down to former President Trump, says UNC Charlotte political science professor Eric Heberlig. “After four years of a Trump presidency, people felt strongly that the country was going in the right or wrong direction and felt it was important to keep him in office or get him out,” Heberlig said.