Commission on Presidential Debates announces polls to qualify for debates
The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates announced Monday that it would use five different polls to determine which candidates will qualify for this fall's presidential and vice presidential debates.
It will use surveys from ABC-Washington Post, CBS-New York Times, CNN-Opinion Research Corporation, NBC-Wall Street Journal and Fox News.
These polls were selected, the commission said, based on the "reliable frequency" of polling and the sample size used by each organization, the "soundness" of their methodology and the "longevity and reputation" of each organization. The commission added that they were selected with the advice of the editor-in-chief of Gallup, Dr. Frank Newport.
In order to participate in the debates, the commission says that a candidate has to have at least 15 percent support of the national electorate, which is determined by averaging the results of the selected organizations' "most recent publicly-reported results at the time of the determination."
Besides that requirement, a candidate must have constitutional eligibility like being at least 35 years of age and a natural born citizen of the U.S. A candidate must also have his or her name appear on enough state ballots "to have at least a mathematical chance of securing an Electoral College majority" in November's election.
The announcement comes a few days after Donald Trump said that he might renegotiate the terms of the debates this fall. He had previously complained about how two of the three debates coincide with nationally televised NFL games.
"I will absolutely do three debates," Trump said in an interview with Time magazine last week. "I want to debate very badly. But I have to see the conditions."
The interview came out shortly after Hillary Clinton's campaign said that the Democratic presidential nominee plans to attend all three scheduled presidential debates, challenging Trump to accept them, too.
The presidential debates are scheduled for September 26th, October 9th and October 19th.
The single vice presidential debate between GOP vice presidential nominee Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine is scheduled for October 4th.
It's unclear if Libertarian Gary Johnson will reach the required threshold for the presidential debate, since his support has been hovering about 7 percent in recent polls.