This is a vision for lawmaking bodies at the local, state, and national level.

And although this vision principally applies to city councils, state legislatures, and Congress, there are also ways to replace partisan primaries for executive positions—like mayor, governor, and president—with lottery-drawn Citizens’ Commissions.

Instead of voters and campaigns, these representative and deliberative bodies of everyday citizens would field, vet, nominate, and possibly even select executive candidates.

From city councils to Congress, lawmaking bodies deal mostly with questions of morals, values, and priorities. How do we want to live together? How should we spend our hard-earned tax dollars? What kind of future do we want for our children?

Answering these questions requires a deep understanding of our communities and our country, and firsthand knowledge of the challenges we face. And when it requires expert knowledge about a specific issue, these citizens can call on expert testimony—just like elected politicians do. Experts can advise, but they shouldn’t decide.

The people who live like us and share the same hopes, dreams, and concerns as us are the ones who are most qualified to truly represent us.

And when it comes to executing policy and running government day-to-day, we do need professional administrators, but there are also promising ways to use lotteries to take parties and politicking out of the selection of mayors, governors, and the president.

Democratic lotteries use proven polling techniques that track the census and the most accurate projections to guide the selection of those picked. This ensures accurate representation across age, gender, geography, income, and race. It creates a true portrait of the population.

We can verify its accuracy just by looking at who gets selected, rather than having to blindly trust faulty and hackable voting booths.

After being selected, the decision to serve would be voluntary. Some may choose to opt-out for whatever reason. For example, they may be running a small business that depends on them. But given our country’s massive population, we can count on there being millions of Americans hoping to get selected and ready to serve.

A minimum age and a restriction against folks who have been convicted of corruption or violent crimes would probably make sense. So might some other basic requirements. We are against qualifications that discriminate and exclude, but ultimately America will have to decide what requirements to put in place.

First, this really doesn’t happen. Citizens’ Panels and Assemblies have shown again and again that when given respect, responsibility, and a chance to listen and learn from one another, people selected by democratic lottery are sensible and civil. And they tend to think passionately about what’s best for everyone.

Second, the large size of legislative bodies, the need to collaborate, and single term limits would mean that extreme views and bad apples wouldn’t make much progress.

Third, for extremely rare cases, there are already rules and procedures on the books that could be maintained and improved to allow the rest of the group to discipline and remove disruptive members.

To start with, no campaigns means no outright buying of representatives.

In addition, one crucial difference that sets this system apart is that since these people represent America simply by being representative of America, they can make their decisions using a secret ballot, just like we do on election day.

This would powerfully defend against corruption once in office by preventing the trading of votes for favors or bribes, the way politicians currently do. Think about it – would you try to bribe someone if you could never confirm if they upheld their end of the deal? It would free our decision makers to truly do what’s right.

Up until this point, those working to advance democratic lotteries have largely focused on convincing politicians of the need for more consultative Citizens’ Panels and Assemblies. As you might imagine, they’ve encountered some resistance along the way. And of the work that has been done, there hasn’t been much in the way of compelling documentation.

In contrast, of by for* is focused on powerfully communicating the promise of this vision for democracy directly to everyday people and taking a true grassroots approach to creating change.

The real goal when selecting representatives in lawmaking bodies is to find people who represent us and our values. A democratic lottery achieves this far better than elections ever can, because it’s real people who look like us and live like us, with no ulterior motives. It’s not out of touch politicians saying whatever, and taking money from wherever, just to win our vote.

Voting could still be used to select executive positions that require specialized skills like mayor, governor or president. Although there are promising ways to use lotteries to take parties and politicking out of that selection process too.