WASHINGTON, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Democratic National Committee announced Wednesday that it was raising both the polling and fundraising bars for candidates to qualify for the third presidential debate scheduled in September.
The debate is set for Sept. 12 and could extend to a second night on Sept. 13, if enough candidates meet the threshold to participate. ABC News, in partnership with Univision, will host the third debate. The location and moderators have not been announced.
Like the first two Democratic presidential debates, which are set for June on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo and for July on CNN, the September debate and a fourth, to be held in October, will cap participants at 10 per night.
However, unlike the first two rounds of debates, when candidates must cross either a donor or polling threshold to qualify, candidates will need to surpass both bars to make the stage for the third and fourth debates.
For the third debate, candidates will have to hit 2 percent in four qualifying polls, versus 1 percent in three polls for the first debates, and they will need 130,000 individual donors, up from 65,000.
Although the polling threshold increase is modest, it could represent a significant barrier for many candidates who have struggled to hit that mark in early polling, according to an ABC News report.
A POLITICO analysis said so far just eight candidates have received more than 2 percent of support in four early polls: former Vice President Joe Biden, Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas.
Only polls published between June 28 (the day after the first round of Democratic debates) and Aug. 28 will count toward qualifying for the third debate in September.
