The Commission on Presidential Debates has released the polls it will use to decide the participants of September's first presidential debate as third-party candidates struggle to make the stage.

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Candidates will need to hit an average of 15 percent in polls conducted by ABC/Washington Post, CBS/New York Times, CNN/Opinion Research Corporation, Fox News, and NBC/Wall Street Journal. The 15 percent threshold had been announced months ago, but the commission released its polling selections on Monday after consultation with Frank Newport, the editor-in-chief of Gallup.

Johnson currently averages 9 percent in the three most recent qualifying polls, while Stein sits at just under 5 percent. In Fox's most recent poll, Johnson scored 12 percent, but the poll did not include Stein. CBS did not test either candidate in its most recent poll.

A representative with the commission did not immediately respond to a request as to how the criteria would be applied if Fox and CBS continued not to test the whole field.

A representative with the commission told The Hill that the polling averages only include the polls where a candidate is tested. So that means Johnson and Stein would not be penalized for polls they were not included in, outside of having fewer opportunities to raise their averages.