: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will participate in three
: general election debates from September through October,
: according to the schedule released Thursday by the
: nonpartisan organization that sponsors the debates.

: The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced the
: first debate will take place on Sept. 26, 2016 at Wright
: State University in Dayton, Ohio, while the second and
: third debates will occur on Oct. 9, 2016 at Washington
: University in St. Louis, Missouri, and Oct. 19, 2016 at the

: University of Nevada-Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. Though
: each debate will run from 9-10:30 p.m. E.T. without
: commercial breaks, debates will also be divided into
: different time segments lasting 10-15 minutes. This format
: builds upon the 2012 debates where longer segments allowed
: candidates to get through the specifics of their policy
: proposals.

: "The CPD has a simple mission, to ensure that
: presidential debates help the public learn about the
: positions of the leading candidates for president and vice
: president," said the two CPD co-chairs. "These
: formats will allow an in-depth exploration of the major
: topics in this year's election."

: In addition to the three presidential debates, CPD also
: announced the vice presidential debate will take place on
: Oct. 4, 2016, at Longwood University in Farmville,
: Virginia. Only moderators will be able to privately select
: the questions posed to the candidates featured at all of
: the debates. But, a group of uncommitted voters will have
: the chance to ask a few questions at the second
: presidential debate, which is styled like a town-hall
: meeting.

: The CPD also aims to increase public engagement before,
: during, and after the debates with a little high-tech help.
: Two of those initiatives, College Debate 2016 and Join the
: Debates, will target young people to generate substantive
: discussion of the debates both online and in the classroom.

: "Our goal is to make the tools available so that the
: debates can reach all Americans, particularly those who
: will be voting for the first time," the co-chairs
: said.

: In June 2015, a group of advocates filed a lawsuit to the
: Federal Election Committee claiming that the CPD was biased
: toward political outsiders. The "Change the Rule"
: campaign specifically targeted rules prohibiting a
: third-party candidate from participating in the general
: election debates, as well as provisions requiring a
: presidential candidate to have at least 15 percent support
: in national polls before stepping on the debate stage.
: However, according to the criteria outlined in CPD's press
: release, the rules have not changed.

: The general election debate schedule is much smaller in scale
: compared to the jam-packed primary season, in which there
: were nine Democratic debates, and 12 Republican ones.

:
: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/presidential-debate-general-election-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-dates-and-venues-announced/