Were you unhappy with the questions at Monday night’s presidential debate? Or maybe just unhappy at which questions were not asked?
Next time, you’ll be able to suggest your own question.
The public can submit and vote on questions for the St. Louis debate on Oct. 9 at PresidentialOpenQuestions.com. ABC and CNN have agreed to consider the 30 most popular.
For the first time, the Commission on Presidential Debates has mandated that moderators of the debate ask questions with input from the internet after a push from a bipartisan coalition of groups.
“The commission was watching closely as the Open Debate Coalition tested out their innovative bottom-up question submission and voting platform in the primaries this year, and we were impressed with the results,” said Mike McCurry, Co-Chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates. “This year's presidential debate moderators will have a rich pool of voter-submitted questions they can draw on that carry greater weight because they are backed by votes from the American people."
The Open Debate Coalition was formed during the 2008 election cycle and includes: Americans for Tax Reform, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, FreedomWorks, NARAL, Faith & Freedom Coalition Founder Ralph Reed, the National Organization for Women, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Color Of Change, Numbers USA, Presente, MoveOn.org, Arianna Huffington, former Romney senior aide Mindy Finn, craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Electronic Frontier Foundation President Cindy Cohn, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and many more.
“This coalition effort is a first-of-its-kind attempt to ensure moderators can ask questions that are not just submitted by the public, but voted on by the public to truly represent what Republican, Democratic and independent families are discussing around their dinner tables. Open Debates are the future,” Lilia Tamm Dixon, Open Debate Coalition director.
Anita Kumar: 202-383-6017, @anitakumar01