The Commission on Presidential Debates is a private organization controlled by former and current leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties. It has established a 15% polling threshold for the inclusion of third-party candidates in the 2016 debates. The Commission claims these polls are “selected based on the quality of the methodology employed.” Americans are told that the polls reflect the “national electorate.”

But in reality, any American who looks closely at the methods of these polls will realize that these polls do not represent the American public. Indeed, a recent article in the prestigious Wired magazine claimed that “the polls are all wrong.” As such, contrary to popular belief and contrary to the information printed in the mainstream outlets that conduct polls, the polls do not represent the national electorate. 

In the future, pollsters should improve their methods. But in this cycle, the damage has been done. The polls are deeply flawed and they have systematically misrepresented the American public. As a result, third-party candidates have not received as much free media coverage as Clinton and Trump.

The only moral way forward is for the Commission to toss out the polling threshold. Open the debates.