Presidential Town Hall Debate: Which Questions Are Most Important to Ohio Voters for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump?

CLEVELAND, OH — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton are set to face off in the second of three presidential debates at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sunday evening — and even if you don't live in The Gateway City, there's still an opportunity to exercise digital democracy.

Unlike the first debate, Sunday's showdown is a town hall-style forum — and viewers who were unhappy with the questions at the last debate can send in their own via the internet and vote on ones submitted by others.
The Commission on Presidential Debates had already announced that the debate would feature questions submitted online, in addition to the ones asked by the in-studio audience. But last week, the debate producers said they are testing a new format that a bipartisan collective of activist and civic groups known as the Open Debate Coalition has been promoting for years: Americans will be able to submit and then vote on questions online.

Both candidates recognize how important the state of Ohio is to winning the presidency and will undoubtedly pay careful attention to issues important to Ohio voters.

"This year’s presidential debate moderators will have a rich pool of voter-submitted questions they can draw on that carry greater weight because they are backed by votes from the American people," Mike McCurry, co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, said in a statement accompanying the announcement by the Open Debate Coalition.

ABC and CNN, who are co-producing the debate, have agreed to consider the 30 most popular questions.

So, here's your chance: What question would you ask of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton at Sunday's debate?

An important note from the Coalition: Questions must not name or allude to a candidate and must be able to be posed to either candidate.

The Debate Details:

When: Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016
Time: 9 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. EST; no commercial breaks
Where: Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
Who: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, moderators Anderson Cooper of CNN and Martha Raddatz of ABC News; Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein failed to make the debate based on recent polling.
Viewing: The debate will be aired live on C-SPAN, ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, as well as all cable news channels including CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, among others.
Format: The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which half of the questions will be posed directly by citizen participants and the other half will be posed by the moderator based on topics of broad public interest as reflected in social media and other sources, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates. The candidates will have two minutes to respond, and there will be an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate further discussion. The town meeting participants will be uncommitted voters selected by the Gallup Organization.

Follow more of Patch's debate coverage:

• Mike Pence to Tim Kaine: 'You Whipped Out That Mexican Thing Again,' Inspires ThatMexicanThing.com
• Hillary Clinton Exposes Donald Trump's Pressure Points in First Presidential Debate
• Presidential Debate Moderators Announced By Commission
• Poll: Presidential Debates Expected To Be Watched by 75 Percent of Voters; Anderson Cooper is Crowd Favorite
• Hillary Clinton Ally: Drop Fox News Presidential Debate Moderator Chris Wallace Over Conflict of Interest

Written by By Allen McDuffee (Patch Staff)

Photos by Rick Uldricks/Patch