As we head from primary season into the general elections, the number of local debates set up to prop up the two-party duopoly is staggering... and it is quickly rising. 

We will do our best to follow and disrupt this trend, but we need your help.

At a time when 61% of voters, and 71% of millennials, say we need a third major party because the two parties have done such a poor job, Ohio voters have an opportunity to hear from two third party candidates who made the ballot this November. 

But the debate host, University of Dayton, has explained its decision to exclude these independent voices with this gem:

"To make the debate as widely viewed as possible across the State of Ohio, candidate participation was based on polling at least 10% statewide under accepted polling methodology at the time of the debate announcement. No other candidates met this threshold."

Of course, this is the first general election debate, and it sets the tone for the rest of the campaign. So a private entity, along with media partners Cox Media Group, WHIO-TV, WHIO-Radio, and Dayton Daily News, is framing the election as a two-way contest and erasing the presence of two important voices -- Libertarian candidate Travis Irvine and Green Party candidate Constance Gadell-Newton.

It's just mindboggling that they would pretend to care about viewership by ignoring the growing desire of the populace to open up the political system to more voices and more choices. 

We can't let them get away with it.

Please take one minute to

• sign our petition to open up the Ohio gubernatorial debate scheduled for September 19 at bit.ly/openOHgov
• share this email with any and all Ohio friends to let them know what the media is up to and that they actually have FOUR choices for governor

The two-party system is broken. It's up to us to fix this mess once and for all. Let's #OpenTheOHgovDebates, together!

If we can break the duopoly's stranglehold in Ohio, we can break it across this land.

Thank you!

Open the Debates