Next Presidential Debate: No (Internet) Questions, Please [POLL]

Will next Tuesday’s town-hall style presidential debate feature questions submitted by Internet users? Probably not, despite a suggestion from Google hinting otherwise.

Google Moderator, part of the Commission on President Debates’ “The Voice Of…” online debate initiative, makes the following promise to users:

“This is YOUR opportunity to ask the candidates where they stand on the issues you care about most. The Commission on Presidential Debates will give a selection of your questions to CNN’s Candy Crowley, who will be moderating the debate and asking questions of the two nominees.”

Sounds an awful lot like the moderator will be taking some Internet users’ questions, doesn’t it? But look closer: the CPD only promises that it will “give a selection” of quotations to Crowley, the moderator. The question then becomes whether or not she’ll use them.

The answer to that question? Probably not.

A “high-level source” at CNN told TechPresident that “that they are not taking questions via email, Twitter, Google Moderator or any other online source.” Instead, questions “are going to be asked by a panel of undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization.”

If Crowley and CNN completely ignore the Google Moderator questions, it would leave the 20,382 people who submitted 3,078 questions on the platform completely in the lurch, unless one of those undecided voters happens to ask their same question.

SEE ALSO: 3 Tech Issues We’re Hoping Come Up at Tonight’s Debate

It’s a disappointing situation for those hoping these debates would be online political participation’s time to shine, particularly after the CPD said “The Voice Of” initiative would “give people throughout the country the opportunity to share their voice” through the Internet.

TechPresident’s Micah Sifry, an advocate for technological innovation in politics, was particularly offended by what he considers a false promise:

“Perhaps it’s time for a new term for these encounters: political vaporware, when name-brand tech companies and media enterprises flash their brands at the public and promise a revolutionary new venture in digital democracy, and then no one really does anything serious,” he wrote.

Google did not repsond to an earlier request for comment from Mashable, and directed TechPresident back to the CPD. Mashable has a separate email out to the CPD and CNN, and will update this post with any additional information.

Should CNN accept Internet users’ questions during the debate? Answer Mashable’s poll, and share your thoughts in the comments below.

Mashable explores the trends changing politics in 2012 and beyond in Politics Transformed: The High Tech Battle for Your Vote, an in-depth look at how digital media is reshaping democracy.

Read a few of the top posts from the series:

Take it with you, buy Politics Transformed: The High Tech Battle for Your Vote on e-book for the Amazon Kindle and get access to four exclusive interviews!