[ Important Update: Four different change.org petition authors from across the political spectrum have come together around a unified petition here. Please sign that and join the Facebook Page Open the Debates! ]

We the People of the United States demand that all candidates who have qualified to be placed on enough state ballots to be mathetically eligible to win the Electoral College and thereby the Presidency and Vice Presidency of these United States of America, be included in the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates over the future of this nation.

BACKGROUND

The Commission on Presidential Debates is a private "nonprofit corporation controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties [and] has run each of the presidential debates held since 1988... Prior to this, the League of Women Voters moderated the 1976, 1980, 1984 debates before it withdrew from the position as debate moderator with this statement after the 1988 Presidential debates: 'the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter.' [source: Wikipedia]

This fraud has been ongoing since 1988, and We the People will no longer accept it.

With two candidates who have qualified for federal matching funds, the American taxpayers have a crystal clear interest in hearing their ideas and positions in the major Presidential debates. Indeed, it is our right to hear from all candidates who attain ballot status in enough states to mathematically win the Electoral College.

Especially with the Supreme Court opening the floodgates to corporate money influencing our elections, it is vital for our democracy, and our very liberty, to include Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein in these debates that are critical to our future.