 Attendance in public meetings is low and highly selective

Although citizens express their intention to participate in public engagement activities, in real world, they are less likely to show up.For example, the average turnout at annual town meetings in Massachusetts in 1996 was 7.6 percent which was much lower than the average municipal election turnout of 31.1 percent.Low turnout rate in public meetings can lead serious sampling biases when attendees and non-attendees significantly differ in their interests.