Most Voters Don’t Think Presidential Debates Are Important, Poll Shows

Presidential debates apparently don’t matter to every voter. A new poll shows that more than half of voters think they’re irrelevant.

NBC New and the Wall Street Journal released poll results on Sunday that asked about the importance of debates. In interviews with 1000 registered voters, 29% say debates will be “extremely” or “quite” important. However, 71% of respondents said debates are “not at all important” or “just somewhat important.”

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The first presidential debate between President Donald J. Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 9 p.m. EDT. Fox News’ Chris Wallace will moderate the session from Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Trump wanted another debate added earlier, arguing that mail-in voting can start before the debates. However, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) denied his demands.

“There is a difference between ballots having been issued by a state and those ballots having been cast by voters, who are under no compulsion to return their ballots before the debates,” the CPD explained. “In 2016, when the debate schedule was similar, only .0069% of the electorate had voted at the time of the first debate. While more people will likely vote by mail in 2020, the debate schedule has been and will be highly publicized. Any voter who wishes to watch one or more debates before voting will be well aware of that opportunity."

The presidential candidates will have at least three debates with follow-ups set for Oct. 15 in Miami and Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tennessee. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence and Biden’s VP choice Senator Kamala Harris are set to debate on Oct. 7 at The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

The CPD chose the moderators. In addition to Wallace, Susan Page of USA Today, Steve Scully of C-SPAN and Kristen Welker of NBC News will moderate debates.