> (I'm not even sure I agree with the proposition that voting pushes the governing apparatus this way in many democracies including the USA)
I agree that it doesn't, but it's the intent. I don't think that's inherent to democracy, though, just the particular "democratic" structures that have evolved that we live with.
> Don't morals factor into deciding what goals are beneficial to the population?
As individuals, we can vote how we like, and everyone can and should use whatever individual morality they have to cast their vote (or not).
But the act of voting doesn't mean that the voter has delegated their moral agency (and, with that, the potential for moral blame or praise) to the people in government. If I vote for someone who decides to do something monstrous, I may be an idiot if I mis-predicted that would be a result, but I discount attempts to put the moral blame for their actions onto me.
This is a relatively unpopular view nowadays (because people see it as a way for Trump voters to distance themselves from Trump's actions), but a world that does assume voters bear moral responsibility for the actions of their government merely by the act of having voted for whoever is performing the actions is a world where it's impossible to be moral.