Greene County News
FAIRBORN — The Commission on Presidential Debates has announced the formats for the three presidential and one vice presidential general election debates it will sponsor this fall.
The formats for the 90-minute debates are designed to facilitate in-depth discussion of the leading issues facing the nation.
Wright State University will host the first presidential debate on Sept. 26 at the Nutter Center, beginning at 9 p.m. eastern time.
The debate will be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on major topics to be selected by the moderator and announced at least one week before the debate.
The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. Candidates will then have an opportunity to respond to each other. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a deeper discussion of the topic.
Visit the Wright State University Debate 2016 website — www.wright.edu/debate — to learn more about the event.
The following is information about other upcoming debates:
– Vice presidential debate, Oct. 4, Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia: The debate will be divided into nine time segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a deeper discussion of the topic.
– Second presidential debate, Oct. 9, Washington University in St. Louis: The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which half of the questions will be posed by citizen participants and the other half will be posed by the moderator based on topics of broad public interest as reflected in social media and other sources. The candidates will have two minutes to respond with an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate further discussion. The town meeting participants will be uncommitted voters selected by the Gallup Organization.
– Third presidential debate, Oct. 19, University of Nevada-Las Vegas: The format for the debate will be identical to the first presidential debate at Wright State.
All debates will be moderated by a single individual and will run from 9 to 10:30 p.m. eastern time without commercial breaks.
The moderators will select the questions to be asked, which are not known to the CPD or to the candidates. The moderators will have the ability both to extend the segments and to ensure that the candidates have equal speaking time. While the focus will properly be on the candidates, the moderator will regulate the conversation so that thoughtful and substantive exchanges occur.
