Although these pranks are funny they highlight a something very serious - the failure case of direct democracy. When minor issues come up for vote not everyone cares. The people who do care enough to vote can easily be trolls.

As an example, imagine that a vote comes up for raising tolls from $1 to $2 on little used street. It's one of 1000 votes a month in a direct democracy. There's little chance of getting attention if you get a bunch of people together to vote "no" but what if you get a bunch of people together to vote "no" on all odd numbered streets?

A large number of contests with low voter interest, plus the potential for publicity is fertile ground for trolling.