Democracy doesn't exist on the 5th of American lands owned by the federal government. Ask any of the folks who were removed from their Alaska mining leases back in the 1970s if there was a vote offered on whether they should be able to stay where their families had lived for three generations. There was not.

That whole democracy thing hasn't had a bearing on Interior Department decisions ever. And if there were an election held, they'd rig it by allowing people in New York and California to outvote the people who are actually effected by the decision. Our Founders tempered democracy with republican features for a reason. Federal lands didn't exist then, but I'm pretty sure James Madison would say "Yes, that's exactly why democracy must be tempered, so that people in large population states and cities cannot treat those in rural areas like slaves."