MILLCREEK, Utah — The campaign has been brutal. Names have been called, insults hurled, yard signs stolen. In these final days, volunteers are out knocking on doors, and undecided voters are awash in leaflets warning about big government and higher taxes, or the loss of crucial government services.

Romney vs. Obama? Hardly. Here in the mini-malls and rolling cul-de-sacs south of Salt Lake City, the election dividing friends and neighbors is one to decide whether the suburb of Millcreek should abandon its loosely organized ways and knit itself into a bona fide city.