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The 2004 United States Presidential Election Debates are another in a regular series of presidential debates first held during the 1960 presidential election and held every four years since the 1976 presidential election.
Both the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) and the Citizens' Debate Commission are sponsoring presidential debates in 2004. See the general article on American presidential debates for more information about sponsorship of the debates.
According to the CPD's website, the criteria for selecting candidates to participate in its 2004 presidential debates are based on evidence of eligibility (as defined in Article Two of the United States Constitution), evidence of ballot access, and evidence of electoral support based on national public opinion polls. Participants must be on enough state ballots to have at least a mathematical chance of securing an Electoral College majority in the 2004 presidential election. Participants must have the support of at least 15% of the national electorate, based on the average of five "selected" national public opinion polling organizations. The CPD will apply these criteria in advance of each scheduled presidential debate.
Invitations to the CPD's vice-presidential debate will be extended to the running mates of the candidates participating in the first presidential debate.
The Citizens' Debate Commission employs criteria developed by the Appleseed Citizens' Task Force on Fair Debates, a project of the Appleseed Electoral Reform Project at American University Washington College of Law.
The Appleseed Task Force criteria includes all candidates on enough state ballots to win an electoral college majority who either 1) register at five percent in national polls or 2) register a majority in national polls asking eligible voters which candidates they would like to see included in the presidential debates.
The Appleseed criteria attempts to ensure that popular third party challengers are allowed to participate without drowning out the voices of the two leading contenders for the presidency. In 1984 and 1988, only the major party candidates fulfilled the Appleseed criteria; in 1996 and 1992, only Ross Perot and the major party candidates managed to meet the Appleseed threshold; and in 2000, only Ralph Nader, Pat Buchanan and the major party candidates satisfied the criteria.
The Citizens' Debate Commission claims that the two prongs of the Appleseed criteria that trigger inclusion, five percent and majority support, are rooted in democratic principles and federal law. The five percent threshold matches the public financing threshold for minor parties, which is the only legislative standard for measuring the viability of non-major parties. Elected officials codified five percent in the Federal Election Campaign Act, and taxpayers finance candidates whose parties attract five percent of the popular vote.
Three presidential debates have been scheduled by the Commission on Presidential Debates:
One vice-presidential debates is scheduled:
For 2004, each debate lasts ninety minutes, includes a live audience, is without opening statements, may include follow-up questions from the moderator and ends with two-minute-long closing statements.
The Citizens' Debate Commission advocates the following format stipulations for future presidential debates:
The Citizens' Debate Commission also proposes the following four basic formats for future presidential debates:
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