Answer: The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) held four debates for the 2012 U.S. presidential general election, slated for various locations around the United States in October 2012 – three of them involving the major party presidential nominees (later determined to be Democratic President Barack Obama from Illinois and former Republican Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts), and one involving the vice-presidential nominees (Vice President Joe Biden from Delaware and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin).[1]
The CPD stipulates three criteria for eligibility: constitutionally eligible, appearance on enough ballots to potentially reach 270 electoral votes, and average at least 15% on five selected national polls.[2] Two candidates satisfied both requirements to participate: Obama and Romney.
The moderators for the debates were announced on August 13, 2012.[3][4]
All four debates took place between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. PDT).[5]
Subsequently, on October 3, 2012, both campaigns executed a memorandum of understanding governing technical and administrative details of the debate.[6] The agreement describes the role of the moderator, rules applicable to each debate, staging and seating arrangements, and ticket distribution, and was signed by Robert Bauer and Benjamin Ginsberg, general counsel of the Obama and Romney campaigns, respectively.[6]
Several non-CPD sanctioned debates among third party candidates took place. The first, moderated by Larry King and organized by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, took place on October 23, 2012 between Rocky Anderson, Virgil Goode, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein.[7] Stein and Johnson were selected using instant-runoff voting for a second Free and Equal Elections Foundation debate, which was hosted by RT and took place on November 5, 2012.[8][9][10] Ralph Nader hosted and moderated a debate between Anderson, Stein, Goode, and Johnson, on November 4, 2012.[11]
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