Proposals for making debates more fair

To prevent the the kind disruptions and upstaging which have occurred at some of the prior national debates, I recommend the following rules be enforced at the 2016 Presidential debates.

1) Once a question is presented to a participant, only that person's mic should be open for response. All other participant's mics will be open only when they have the floor to reply, or when they have a question directed at them.

2) Participants should be physically separated by several feet so as to prevent disruptions to the participant who is speaking.

3) If a participant takes longer than the allotted time to reply to their question, or in rebuttal, the extra time taken would be subtracted from their very next opportunity to speak.

4) If a participant speaks out of turn, or disrupts the proceedings or another participant's turn to speak, the time taken will be subtracted from their next opportunity to speak.

5) As an option to consider, if a participant uses less than the allotted time to speak, that extra time might be added to their future opportunity to speak.

6) Another option is, if in a response, a participant chooses to cover material unrelated to the issue presented by the moderator, the mic may be cut off and the opportunity voided.

I believe people want to hear all of the participants' responses. These rules would keep the debate going in an organized manner, and would be fair to all parties.

Richard Cichanski

Palatine