This week the Independent American Party, Constitution Party and Libertarian Party of Utah sent a formal complaint to the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Election Commission after candidates representing the parties were not allowed to participate in the first statewide political debate this election season.
Utah Debate Commission board member Damon Cann said the rules the commission follow for allowing candidates to participate stem from rules set forth for presidential debate participation. He said the state commission’s rules were created to be even more generous to third parties than the national system.
“We talked about it and decided that we would actually be somewhat more open to third parties by setting our threshold at 10 percent rather than at 15 percent, and that we would conduct a single poll rather than requiring them to be above 10 percent in five polls,” Cann said.
Cann said it is the commission’s responsibility to make sure the debates are productive and he says including many voices that only have small levels of support in the debate has the potential to distract from meaningful discourse.
“Our goal is simply to balance and make sure that we have viable candidates who are using the time that we have available in the debate,” Cann said.
Participants in the hour-long debates need to have enough support to show that a sizable amount of the public would like to hear their input in the debate, according to Cann.
The third parties argue that being involved in the debates is necessary to garner support for elections and that by leaving third parties out, the commission is favoring Republican and Democratic candidates.
Cann said it is not the commission’s responsibility to promote third party interests.
“They have a responsibility to promote their own organizations to a point where they can sponsor viable candidates and we’re very happy to include those candidates when they become viable; there is no bias against them,” Cann said.
To learn more about the complaint, visit the Independent American Party website.