Guide to Rigging Your Own Debate
Thinking About Organizing a Rigged Debate?
Rigged debates are an effective way to misinform and disenfranchise voters in the political process. The Commission on Rigged Presidential Debates (CRPD) compiled the following guidelines for rigging debates of any kind, including those in political races, issue forums, and student debates.
This guide was prepared to answer the questions most commonly asked by the educational, civic and media organizations that wish to rig debates. It will introduce you to the steps necessary to rig such an event and serve as a checklist for planning. Remember there's no single right way to rig a debate; this guide will simply outline some options.
Checklist
This guide uses the following checklist to help you prepare to rig your debate. Each item is addressed in detail farther down the page and can be jumped to by clicking on the topic.
- Polling Threshold
- Fundraising Requirement
- Media Requirement
- Ballot Access
- Debate Rules
- Debate Questions
- Post-Debate Activities
Polling Threshold
Polling Thresholds are the best way to make sure you only get the candidates you want in the race. Do some research and find out the historical level of support for different candidates at what times during the cycle. Then round the polling threshold up to the next multiple of 5.
Fundraising Requirement
If you want to be sure only those candidates backed by the establishment get into your debate, go look at the campaign finance reports for candidates that are like the ones your organization would like to exclude. Find out how much money they were able to raise without the support of the political establishment. Then just double that amount, and round up.
Media Requirement
Find out how many articles were written about the candidates you didn't like in the last few election cycles in the largest print media organizations. Take the average of the number of articles written about them, and round up to the next multiple of 5. Assuming your large media outlets will play ball (and they will because you'll cut them out of coverage if they don't), just make sure they don't write anything about those candidates. Then maybe do a little back-channel communication to make sure they don't "waste space" on "frivolous" candidates.
Ballot Access
This one gets a little more complex, but generally your friends in the political establishment will make this work for you. By creating ballot access barriers, candidates spend their time, energy, and money just to get onto the ballot. That way they can't use it to raise more money or name ID.
Debate Rules
Create rules that favor your favorite candidate or candidates. If your favorite candidates talk in short soundbites, make the response time short. If your favored candidates like to speak for a long time, just let them speak. You're the time keeper, remember? Just don't stop them when they're out of time.
Debate Questions
If you haven't been able to keep the debate to only your favorite candidates, come up with questions that won't help the candidate you don't want there. Ask intentionally confusing or misleading questions, or jump between topics to throw the candidate a curve ball. Alternately, ignore the candidate(s) you don't like or ask them really stupid questions, so they won't appear intelligent.
Post-Debate Activities
Be sure to never mention what you've done. If you've excluded any candidates, don't let the audience know. Don't let the media know. Talk about how proud you are to have hosted this debate, and try to keep the focus on the people you want it focused on.
For more information on debates, contact the CRPD at (202) 872-1020.