Democratic candidates for president or their representatives will be involved when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) does a lottery to determine who stands on stage during the party’s initial two-day debate, DNC Chairman Tom Perez told The Hill in an exclusive interview.

Perez said the DNC hadn’t determined the “precise methodology” for the random draw yet, but he said the process would be transparent and the candidates or their representatives would be involved.

“We’ll certainly make sure we do it in a way that is transparent for all of the candidates involved because obviously we want them to see for themselves that we meant what we said,” Perez said, seated on a brown leather couch in his DNC office overlooking South Capitol Street.