Just to keep things in historical perspective... the US Constitution (if memory serves) was never ratified by popular vote.........
Likely it would have failed to be ratified if it had been.
The masses did not vote to ratify the constitution, but representatives did.... hence a REPUBLIC was born.....
True absolute Democracy is a failed construct, it is simply mob rule...... Our founders understood this, and were vehemently opposed to it.... Its sad that not even 2.5 centuries later... we use the word Democracy as the ideal...
Democratic Republics are great constructs, true democracy is a horrible system.
Many states had specifically elected constitutional conventions to ratify the constitution. The text was printed in newspapers and vigorously debated in the press. Their was no attempt to hide the text of the document from the people.