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Home→Uncategorized→See the Letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates by Influential Americans on Expanding Access to the Debates

See the Letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates by Influential Americans on Expanding Access to the Debates

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Richard Winger

Here is the text of the letter sent to the Commission on Presidential Debates earlier this year, signed by many influential Americans. The letter asks that the Commission on Presidential Debates liberalize access to the general election presidential debates.

Comments

See the Letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates by Influential Americans on Expanding Access to the Debates — 4 Comments

Alabama Independent on March 19, 2015 at 7:43 pm said:

This appeal will get about as far as the District of Columbia becoming the 51st state.

Very few – if any – candidates could meet the “reformed” rules for being allowed in the presidential debates. As long as the Media is allowed to ignore the 3rd party and Independent candidates, and unlimited Big Money is still allowed to be spent for the major party candidates, there won’t be much of a change.

Again, candidates must have reasonable filing fees or petitions requirements for making the ballot, and then the FEC must be solely responsible for financing the elections for all candidates – thereby stopping private money from being used.

Only when each candidate running for President, has been equally exposed to the voters, and the same amount of money has been spent for promoting each candidate, it will be the same old story, all over again.

Until we destroy the current system, there will never be a true “level playing field” and the Democrats and Republicans will continue to rule this nation.
Demo Rep on March 19, 2015 at 7:55 pm said:

More or Less control freak STATISM —

how many different folks needed to debate the point ???
Demo Rep on March 19, 2015 at 8:10 pm said:

Also –

ONE election day.

Uniform definition of Elector-Voter in ALL of the USA.

Ballot access ONLY by equal nominating petitions.

Nonpartisan App.V. for elected executive officers and all judges.

IF the Elephants try to even more rig the Electoral College gerrymander mess, then do NOT be surprised if Civil WAR II happens in 2017.
E. Zachary Knight on March 20, 2015 at 6:22 am said:

There are a couple of issues with this letter’s proposal. The first and biggest issue is that it advocates for allowing only a single third party/independent Presidential candidate into the debates. if multiple candidates reach the 270 potential electoral vote threshold, all but one is ignored by the debate officials.

the second issue is that this proposal is biased against third parties who did not have to petition during the election year to achieve their 270 potential electoral votes. This means that the Libertarian and Green parties are likely to never qualify because they petitioned in previous elections and retained access through votes in previous elections.

I maintain that the presidential debates should be open to any and all candidates who meet the 270 potential electoral votes threshold. That is today and amazing and difficult, but ultimately achievable, feat that can easily keep the debates easy to manage. In 2014, that would have meant only 4-6 candidates in any debate.