PBS NewsHour's special election broadcast coverage continues with live coverage and post-debate analysis of the 2012 Presidential Debates on October 3, 11, 16 and 22, 2012 at 6 p.m. on KPBS Television.
Vote 2012 Map Center
Explore the PBS NewsHour Election 2012 Interactive Map Center. The map features an electoral college calculator which includes historical data going back to the 1964 election.
Listen To Me
Listen To Me is a campaign that asks voters in every state about the direction of the country and how they feel about the political process. PBS NewsHour is asking voters what the most important issues are, whether they're hopeful about the future, and if they think the political system is broken. Watch the videos
Quiz: Where Do You Fit?
Pew Research Center and the NewsHour have teamed up to establish the Political Party ID Quiz. Twelve simple questions will calculate your partisan status, and you can see how you compare with others based on your age, gender, religion and marital status.
Presidential Debates: Teachable Moments to Spark Interest in Elections
What can middle, high school and college students learn from watching the upcoming presidential debates? Read the article by Leah Clapman
Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill will anchor broadcast coverage and will be joined in the studio by the NewsHour's regular political analysts, syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks. Political editor Christina Bellantoni will be on hand to provide perspective on social media reactions to the debates.
Special guests will include NPR correspondents Ari Shapiro and Scott Horsley, who will offer analysis and perspective from the site of the presidential debates, and Debbie Elliott and Brian Naylor, providing analysis of the vice presidential debate.
PBS's own Jim Lehrer will moderate the first debate on October 3, 2012. It will be the 12th presidential debate he has moderated.
Wednesday, October 3 - The first Presidential Debate will focus on domestic policy and will be moderated by Jim Lehrer, Executive Editor of the PBS NewsHour at the University of Denver, in Denver, Colo.
The debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced before the debate. The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.
Thursday, October 11 - In their only debate of the 2012 campaign, the Vice Presidential candidates will meet at Centre College, Danville, Ky. for a debate moderated by Martha Raddatz, Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent for ABC News.
The debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics and be divided into nine segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the question.
Tuesday, October 16 - The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which citizens will ask questions of the candidates on foreign and domestic issues, Candy Crowley, Chief Political Correspondent for CNN and anchor of CNN's State of the Union will moderate the debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.
Citizens will ask questions of the candidates on foreign and domestic issues. Each candidate will have two minutes to respond, and an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate a discussion. The town meeting participants will be undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization.
Monday, October 22 - Foreign policy will be the focus of the third and final Presidential Debate moderated by Bob Schieffer, chief Washington correspondent for CBS News and moderator of Face The Nation at Lynn University at Boca Raton, Fla.
The debate will focus on foreign policy and be divided into six segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced before the debate. The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.
LIVE STREAM
In addition to broadcast coverage, PBS NewsHour will livestream the debates and other coverage throughout each night of the debates. NewsHour reporters will also live blog analysis and added context on the NewsHour website and interview guests on an AfterHours livestream.
PBS ELECTION 2012
For more information on PBS Election 2012, including programming from PBS NEWSHOUR, WASHINGTON WEEK, FRONTLINE and NEED TO KNOW, visit pbs.org/election2012 and follow #pbsElection on Twitter.
PBS NewsHour is on Facebook, and you can follow @NewsHour on Twitter.
Watch Candidates Fine-Tune Their Messages Before First Debate on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
Watch Shields and Brooks on Early Voting, Preparing for the Debate on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
Watch What's at Stake in the Candidates' Visions for Medicaid on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
Watch Candidates Push Early Voting on Campaign Trail on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
