Page 121 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

How do you get a representative group? Simple demographic filters (age, gender, location) are used to help stratify the random sample to represent broader demographics. You can use more filters, but a balance is required. Over-engineering who is in the room can lead to accusations of ‘fixing’ or having too much control over the ‘random’nature of a civic lottery.At worst,actively ‘excluding’ people from the process will undermine trust in the process. There is one exception here: we suggest that anyone who is in political office, or actively involved in the decision from within government, be ineligible for participation. With this method, you are not trying to fit every single ‘type’ of person into the room. This would mean bringing everyone in the entire community into the room for each meeting. People share their lived experiences with people like them. 119