Dear __________________,

In a recent article, you wrote [insert quote from article]. 

I agree with you that our country is ready for a challenge to the two party monopoly. There is a crucial barrier, however, that discourages independent candidates from running: the presidential debates. 

No barrier is more damaging and regressive than the current design of the nationally televised presidential debates. Since 1988, the debates have been run by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a pseudo-governmental entity created by the Democratic and Republican National Committees. The CPD’s criteria for inclusion in the debates are designed to keep independents out. And they have!

Since its current rules were adopted in 1995, no independent presidential candidate has been invited, even in the face of numerous polls showing that 60% of Americans would prefer to see independents included.

This is a classic vicious circle, of course. Instead of the presidential debates being a forum which expands and deepens public dialogue, the CPD uses criteria that narrow the field and the exchange of ideas. It requires that candidates show 15% in three or more national polls that ask voters whom they plan to vote for.

The CPD has rejected calls to change the polling question to ask which candidates voters would like to see in the debates as well as calls to lower the 15% threshold. Even the Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Michael Toner, recently called for the qualifying threshold to be reduced to 5%!

Given the current arrangement, potential candidates may decline to run because, as everyone knows, exclusion from the debates is an insurmountable political hurdle. 

I urge you to write about the exclusionary structure of the Commission on Presidential Debates and the unfair criteria they use to determine who gets to debate.   

Sincerely,