Opinion: Why do we overlook the power of local elections?
In towns like mine, the local government controls far more than most people realize — from electric rates to zoning maps to the public’s right to information.
By Amanda Underwood
Beacon Media
I recently said to someone, “I had no idea about the vast power of municipal government until I started to challenge it.”
They stopped me mid-sentence. “That’s it,” they said. “That’s what people need to hear.”
Counties across North Carolina held municipal elections last week. Voters had the opportunity to weigh in on who will serve as their mayor, town council members, county commissioners, and boards of education — positions that impact nearly every part of our lives. And yet only around 20% of voters or less in communities where these elections were held cast a ballot.
Why do so many of us overlook the power of local elections?
We tend to think of elections as national events — presidents, governors, Congress, but it’s local government that affects nearly every part of our daily lives. The water that comes out of your tap, the rate on your electric bill, the way your neighborhood develops, the property taxes you pay, even whether your street floods after a storm — it all comes down to decisions made at Town Hall.
Take Clayton, for example, where last Tuesday I was elected to a seat on the Town Council. The town isn’t just our local government; it’s also our electric supplier. Unlike Duke Energy, it isn’t regulated by the N.C. Utilities Commission. There’s no independent board reviewing rate hikes or policies. Oversight comes only from us, the residents paying the bills. Clayton holds a monopoly: we can’t choose another provider, and the system is set up so even solar panels face resistance.
That means the only real check on how much we pay — and how those funds are used — is who we elect to lead.
And when things go wrong, accountability feels impossible at times. If you don’t like what your municipal government is doing, your only real option is to sue — or, maybe, run for office. Public records requests that are denied or delayed? You can’t appeal to a state agency; your only remedy is to take your own government to court. Most people don’t have the time, money, or capacity to do that.
That’s the quiet reality of local power: it’s both immense and insulated. The decisions are personal, but the accountability is distant.
I decided to run here in Clayton after the town council quietly eliminated the line-item budget that used to show exactly where our money goes. Now, if you want to know how your tax dollars are being spent, your only recourse is to hold them accountable at the ballot box. I learned that the hard way.
Local government holds more power than most of us ever imagined. The question isn’t whether that power exists — it’s who we trust to wield it, and whether we’re willing to show up, do the work to find out what’s going on, and keep them honest.
In communities all over North Carolina, voters have just elected new leaders. If you’d told me five years ago that I would run and win a campaign for Clayton Town Council, I would have laughed at you. But when I started asking questions about how our tax dollars are spent, and how development decisions are made, I couldn’t get a straight answer. I decided to run to bring transparency and accountability to our local government.
Here in Clayton, only 13.6% of registered voters cast a ballot in last week’s election. I’m excited to get to work and am committed to transparency and accountability. I hope that more people in my town and across North Carolina will start tuning into their local government, asking hard questions, and holding leaders accountable at the ballot box, whether by voting or running themselves.
Local elections matter. They aren’t about partisan lines or political slogans. They’re about whether the people who hold almost unlimited power over your everyday life are using it responsibly—or simply acting in their own self-interest because no one’s stopping them.
Clayton Town Councilmember-elect Amanda Underwood, a native of Clayton, N.C., works in strategic communications, design, and public engagement. This column is syndicated by Beacon Media and is available to republish for free on all platforms under Beacon Media’s guidelines.