Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., and Paul G. Kirk, Jr., co-chairmen of the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), today announced moderators for the 2004 general election debates. The moderators, and the schedule and locations for the debates (as announced on November 6, 2003), are as follows:
First presidential debate:
University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL
Thursday, September 30
Jim Lehrer
Anchor and Executive Editor, The NewsHour, PBS
Vice presidential debate:
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH
Tuesday, October 5
Gwen Ifill
Senior Correspondent, The NewsHour, and Moderator, Washington Week, PBS
Second presidential debate:
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, MO
Friday, October 8
Charles Gibson
Co-Anchor, ABC News Good Morning America
Third presidential debate:
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ
Wednesday, October 13
Bob Schieffer
CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent, and Moderator, Face the Nation
Each debate shall begin at 9:00 p.m. EDT.
Format
The format for the debates, as announced on June 17, 2004, shall be as follows:
- Each debate shall have a single moderator and last for 90 minutes.
- In the first and third presidential debates and the vice presidential debate the candidates shall be seated with the moderator at a table.
- The first presidential debate shall focus primarily on domestic policy and the third presidential debate shall focus primarily on foreign policy. The second presidential debate shall be held as a town meeting in which citizens will pose questions to the candidates. The vice presidential debate shall cover both foreign and domestic policy topics.
- There shall be no opening statements; there shall be two-minute closing statements.
- The order of questioning and closing statements shall be determined by coin toss.
- The moderator’s job in the first and third presidential debates and the vice presidential debate will be to introduce and change topics, to ensure that the participants have equal time, and to encourage some direct exchange among the candidates. The moderators will select all topics and questions.
- In the second presidential debate, the town meeting participants will pose their questions to the candidates. The town meeting participants will review their questions with the moderator before the debate for the sole purpose of avoiding duplicate questions. The participants in the town meeting, to be chosen by the Gallup Organization, will be undecided voters from the St. Louis, Missouri, standard metropolitan statistical area.
- The moderators will have discretion to ask follow-up questions in all debates.
- Each debate shall take place before a live audience.
Participants
The CPD’s 2004 Nonpartisan Candidate Selection Criteria, announced September 24, 2003, shall be the exclusive means of determining the candidates to be invited to participate in the debates. The criteria are below:
COMMISSION ON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES
NONPARTISAN CANDIDATE SELECTION CRITERIA
FOR 2004 GENERAL ELECTION DEBATE PARTICIPATION
A. INTRODUCTION
The mission of the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (the “CPD”) is to ensure, for the benefit of the American electorate, that general election debates are held every four years between the leading candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States. The CPD sponsored a series of such debates in each of the past four general elections, and has begun the planning, preparation, and organization of a series of nonpartisan debates among leading candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency in the 2004 general election. As in prior years, the CPD’s voter educational activities will be conducted in accordance with all applicable legal requirements, including regulations of the Federal Election Commission that require that debate sponsors extend invitations to debate based on the application of “preestablished, objective” criteria.
The goal of the CPD’s debates is to afford the members of the public an opportunity to sharpen their views, in a focused debate format, of those candidates from among whom the next President and Vice President will be selected. In each of the last four elections, there were scores of declared candidates for the Presidency, excluding those seeking the nomination of one of the major parties. During the course of the campaign, the candidates are afforded many opportunities in a great variety of forums to advance their candidacies. In order most fully and fairly to achieve the educational purposes of its debates, the CPD has developed nonpartisan, objective criteria upon which it will base its decisions regarding selection of the candidates to participate in its 2004 debates. The purpose of the criteria is to identify those candidates who have achieved a level of electoral support such that they realistically are considered to be among the principal rivals for the Presidency.
In connection with the 2004 general election, the CPD will apply three criteria to each declared candidate to determine whether that candidate qualifies for inclusion in one or more of CPD’s debates. The criteria are (1) constitutional eligibility, (2) ballot access, and (3) electoral support. All three criteria must be satisfied before a candidate will be invited to debate.
B. 2004 NONPARTISAN SELECTION CRITERIA
The CPD’s nonpartisan criteria for selecting candidates to participate in its 2004 general election presidential debates are:
1. EVIDENCE OF CONSTITUTIONAL ELIGIBILITY
The CPD’s first criterion requires satisfaction of the eligibility requirements of Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. The requirements are satisfied if the candidate:
a. is at least 35 years of age;
b. is a Natural Born Citizen of the United States and a resident of the United States for fourteen years; and
c. is otherwise eligible under the Constitution.
2. EVIDENCE OF BALLOT ACCESS
The CPD’s second criterion requires that the candidate qualify to have his/her name appear on enough state ballots to have at least a mathematical chance of securing an Electoral College majority in the 2004 general election. Under the Constitution, the candidate who receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College, at least 270 votes, is elected President regardless of the popular vote.
3. INDICATORS OF ELECTORAL SUPPORT
The CPD’s third criterion requires that the candidate have a level of support of at least 15% (fifteen percent) of the national electorate as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations’ most recent publicly-reported results at the time of the determination.
C. APPLICATION OF CRITERIA
CPD’s determination with respect to participation in CPD’s first-scheduled debate will be made after Labor Day 2004, but sufficiently in advance of the first-scheduled debate to allow for orderly planning. Invitations to participate in the vice-presidential debate will be extended to the running mates of each of the presidential candidates qualifying for participation in CPD’s first presidential debate. Invitations to participate in the second and third of CPD’s scheduled presidential debates will be based upon satisfaction of the same multiple criteria prior to each debate.
The CPD is the nonpartisan, nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization that sponsored the debates in 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000. More information on the CPD and its voter education programs can be obtained at www.debates.org.