NC’s Electric Co-ops are Failing Their Democratic Roots

Electric cooperatives were created to bring democracy to the power grid; but in North Carolina, that promise is quietly breaking down. North Carolina’s electric cooperatives operate with board election voter turnout below 10%, raising serious questions about the democratic function and accountability of these vital utility providers. Established during the New Deal era on ideals of local, democratic control, nearly 900 electric co-ops operate nationwide: these include 26 regional co-ops serving over 2.8 million people in North Carolina, whose struggle with civic engagement leaves their board’s power largely unchecked. 

These co-ops provide crucial electric infrastructure to huge swathes of rural NC, areas historically underserved with regards to utilities. The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 created the framework for these member-owned utilities. Under the law, rural residents formed nonprofit cooperatives to provide electricity where private companies saw little profit. Each cooperative is governed by a board of directors elected by its members. In North Carolina, there are 26 regional cooperatives operating within lenient rules set by the state, providing electricity to over a quarter of the NC population.

Established during the New Deal era, these cooperatives were made with rural, democratic driven ideals. Cooperatives function as a democratically accountable alternative to private utility companies: they are run by a board of directors, who are directly elected by their co-op members, the clients they serve. This accountability is one of the key appeals of the cooperative system. In theory, this model of representative democracy seems like an effective way to run a necessary utility democratically; however, strikingly low participation rates have raised questions about its effectiveness. 

First, many members of the boards simply lack understanding of the inner workings of how an electric cooperative functions. This lack of institutional knowledge can lead to weak oversight, poor strategic decision-making, and policies that fail to reflect the cooperative’s member-owned mission.

Second, low turnout in board elections means that only a small fraction of cooperative members are choosing the people responsible for governing their utilities. Approximately 70% of NC’s electric cooperatives have a turnout of less than 10%. For example, in its 2025 board election, Roanoke Electric, which serves northeast NC, saw a turnout of 4%, far below what would be necessary to consider these bodies to represent the will of the people. These organizations—explicitly designed to operate democratically—remain de facto unaccountable: in response to abysmally low turnout and a lack of challenges to sitting members, elections have been cancelled to save on resources, creating an accountability gap between these co-ops and the people they were designed to serve.

This lack of civic engagement has been compounded by changes in state law. In 2013, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation that reduced state oversight of electric cooperatives and shifted greater authority to each cooperative’s board of directors. Prior to the law, cooperative members could bring certain complaints—such as concerns about financial reporting or rate-setting—to state or federal regulators. The change allowed many of these complaints to be handled internally by the cooperatives themselves, meaning boards are often responsible for reviewing issues involving their own organization. Critics argue that this structure weakens accountability, particularly in cooperatives where member participation in elections is already very low.

Furthering this issue, in many cooperatives, once a person is elected to the board of directors, they can remain in that position for years with little or no electoral challenge, raising serious concerns about accountability and democratic participation.

The combination of extremely low voter turnout in board elections and the lack of state oversight has weakened what were once seen as models of public goods under democratic governance. In an age of an ever-growing and aggressive Duke Energy dominating NC and hiking up customer prices, these cooperatives seem like a beacon of hope, however they have much to work on themselves. 

​​These problems aren’t unique to cooperatives: the issues seen with electric co-ops across NC are paralleled by other democratic-focused institutions within local government. Local municipal elections have suffered incredibly low turnout, an issue that is only exasperated in off-year elections. In Orange County, the turnout languished just above 15%. That phenomenon repeats itself across the nation, and raises concerns over a loss of oversight for elected officials and entrenched local power. 

Nevertheless, cooperatives provide a particularly striking case of this broader democratic malaise. Unlike many other local institutions, they were explicitly designed not merely to provide a service, but to embody a democratic ideal: that ordinary people could collectively own and govern the infrastructure that sustains their daily lives. The story of rural electrification in North Carolina is therefore both remarkable and unfinished. What was once a triumphant example of democratic problem-solving—neighbors organizing to bring power to communities the market ignored—now risks becoming a quiet reminder of how easily democratic structures can drift into passivity when participation fades. Yet the foundations of that original vision remain. Because these cooperatives are still member-owned, their democratic character can be revived if members choose to reclaim it. Renewed engagement, stronger transparency, and broader awareness of the stakes could allow these institutions not only to correct course, but to once again demonstrate the promise of locally governed public infrastructure.