As an independent activist, we have been trying to open the debates to all the candidates especially in the Presidential Debates.
On September 30, Congress unanimously passed S.3196, which will apparently be the first law to mention the Commission on Presidential Debates. The bill had been introduced by Senator Ted Kaufman of Delaware. When he introduced the bill, he said on the floor of Congress, “Third party candidates will be eligible if they meet the same criteria used by the Commission on Presidential Debates to participate in general election debates.”
The bill seems to indicate the following will be used to determine who is in the debates:
1. Nominees of parties that polled at least 25% of the presidential vote in the last election.
2. Other presidential candidates are also potentially eligible, if they are on the ballot in enough states to theoretically win the election, and if the Administrator of the General Services Administration believes the other candidate “has demonstrated a significant level of public support in national public opinion polls, so as to be realistically considered among the principle contenders for President. To help the Administrator decide, the bill says he or she should “consider whether other national organizations have recognized the candidate as being among the principle contenders for the general election, including whether the Commission on Presidential Debates has determined that the candidate is eligible to participate in the candidate debates for the general election.
The Commission in recent presidential years has required a candidate to be at 15% in polls in order to be invited into the debates. It looks like the major parties are circling the wagons.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!
Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us 
No comments:
Post a Comment