If Jill Stein (Green) and Gary Johnson (Libertarian) can make it into the debates, 2016 may be the defining historical moment for the third parties.
Bernie supporters who fall into the category of #NeverHillaryNeverTrump welcome a third party into the national debate. A great deal of the Vermont Senator's policies echo in Jill Stein's platform, whereas Johnson attracts Republicans who have no interest in Trump but supported Sanders.
The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a private organization, controls every aspect of the debates, from who the participants will be, to what will be discussed.
To qualify for the CPD debates, a participant must gain ballot access in enough states to achieve the 270 electoral votes necessary to win and demonstrate "a level of support of at least 15 percent of the national electorate, as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations' most recent publicly-reported results."
Both Green and Libertarian parties have reached the first hurdle of having enough ballot access to obtain 270 electoral votes.
But the five public opinion polling organizations are chosen by the CPD, and polls don't ask participants the same questions for all parties. In the latest CNN poll conducted just after the DNC convention, they asked 1,003 people for their opinion of the two major party candidates and their running mates, but didn't ask for their opinion of the third party candidates.
"We'd like to get your overall opinion of some people in the news. As I read each name, please say if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of these people -- or if you have never heard of them." -CNN poll (only asked about Clinton, Kaine, Trump, and Pence)
The greatest barrier to knowledge of third party candidates is the mainstream media's lack of coverage. (What happened first: the media's coverage of Donald Trump or Trump's popularity?)
Trump said of third party participation in the debates, "I'd rather have head to head and right now, they're not getting any numbers. She's (Jill Stein) doing better than he (Gary Johnson) is, but right now in some polls she's actually not doing badly."
"Polls show that a majority of voters want to see additional candidates in the debates," said John Andrews, Senior Advisor to Jill Stein. "The CPD is not running the debates to help voters understand their choices - they are running them to eliminate competition. It's time that we had inclusive debates."
The CPD could shut out third party candidates by choosing which polls they use for their criteria. The CPD says they "will identify the selected polling organizations well in advance of the time the criteria are applied."
One way to bring the third parties to October/November debates is to put pressure on the Commission on Presidential Debates. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson founded a group called Our America Initiative in 2009 to demand the CPD allow participation by any presidential candidate with enough ballot access to win the election. By this standard, only two other candidates qualify: Jill Stein and Gary Johnson. Our America Initiative is collecting signatures on this petition which they could use to show the networks how many people want to watch such a debate.
The Green Party offers their own petition called Open The Debates, utilizing a hashtag #OpentheDebates to make the case that America is ready for a fair debate among the parties.