New England town government is by town meeting, in all six New England states. You vote by raising your hand, your vote is counted by a “teller”, a vote counter, who enumerates the number of hands he (or she) sees raised for yea, or nay. Turn out tends to light and special interest groups dominate.
That’s how Concord, MA, voted to ban the sale of bottled water in containers smaller than one liter.
They do that in Wisconsin to set school district budgets. Hardly anybody knows that it is happening. When I go to those meetings, I see District personnel taking head counts, and suddenly an influx of people shows up just before the vote is taken. The School District always get their tax increase. The last couple of meetings I’ve attended, they don’t even ask for ID. The room is filled with teachers and students. They just count the show of hands.
At the last election we managed to get a couple out “outsiders” elected. Methinks things will change. At least our folks are going to try asking those atending to prove that they live within the district and are over 18.