<div><p>Presidential Debate News provides the latest news and information on efforts to open up the presidential debates to include a third, independent candidate - thus, giving the Americ
Five days after its stunning defeat in U.S. District Court, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) asked Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to clarify and reconsider her order. Four days later the judge responded - and not in a way that would make the FEC very happy. READ MORE: Federal Judge
Rules That Block Independent Candidates From Final Presidential Debates Now in Jeopardy; 2020 Election Could Open Up In blunt and highly critical language, a federal judge on Wednesday blasted the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and issued a ruling that lays the groundwork for removing the primary obstacle to a serious
WASHINGTON, DC – A federal court judge yesterday issued an unprecedented ruling that could open the way in 2020 for the first serious challenge in decades by an independent candidate for president. In a blistering 28-‐page decision, Judge Tanya Chutkan told the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that in its rejection
As we reported in our last letter, advocates of opening the fall presidential debates to a third candidate have received their day in court. Reporting by Bloomberg and other media on the Jan. 5 hearing stressed U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan's intense questioning of the defense attorney
The Commission on Presidential Debates, or CPD, has been under fire for its policies for several years now. For the past 24 years, the CPD has excluded anyone but the Republican and Democratic nominees from participating in the three presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate in September and October before
As IVN recently reported, the lawsuit filed by the Green and Libertarian parties arguing that the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) violated anti-trust laws was dismissed in federal court. Fortunately, the lawsuit to open the debates filed by Level the Playing Field (the successor to Americans Elect) and Peter Ackerman
Editor's note: This article was written by Peter Ackerman, chairman of Level the Playing Field, and Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. It originally published in The Washington Post. The prospect
Matthew Dowd (who served as chief strategist for President George W. Bush's re-election campaign in 2004) certainly understands the political moment we find ourselves in. American voters feel like they are caught between the extremes of both parties, and while it should be inevitable that a competitive independent
A consensus has formed around the proposition that polling, especially in multi-candidate presidential races, has become inaccurate and unreliable.This judgment, rendered by respected experts, exposes the absurdity and corruption of the recent decision by the Commission on Presidential Debates to continue using polls to determine who will be on
After 10 months of bluff, dishonesty, and delay, the organization that manages the fall presidential debates, the grandiosely titled Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), last week issued its "selection criteria" for 2016. They're the same as they've been for the past two decades. In
Update: On October 29, the Commission on Presidential Debates released its criteria for the 2016 fall debates. It maintains its 15% polling threshold for candidate inclusion. What polling agencies the Commission will use are still unknown. Senator Jim Webb, one of the five candidates in the first Democratic primary debate,
Independent candidates for president aren't the only ones who have to deal with rigged debates and a flawed system that uses polls to determine access to the stage. In a new post on his blog, Harvard professor and candidate for the Democratic Party nomination, Larry Lessig, responded to