Another year, there was a proposal to construct a new coal firing power plant. (We had always been proudly hydroelectric.) The trick this time was to make as though the coal plant would be built anyway, and was already set to power another town - we were simply voting to be connected. All lies.
This city contains multiple universities so it leans progressive anyway, and in both cases we were able to get the word out so that enough people didn't fall for the deceit. But these are just mundane examples of how far our "democratically elected leaders" will go to undermine democracy.
Effectively, the US is not a democracy, hasn't been for decades, and perhaps never was.