To Debate or Not To Debate? Here Are Some Answers

Candidates across the country are holding debates or arguing over whether to have them, but political debates are a mixed bag as far as most voters are concerned.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters say they have watched at least one candidate debate this campaign season. But nearly as many (45%) have not. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

However, 49% find most political debates to be informative. Thirty-six percent (36%) think most of them are useless. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided.

Among those who say they are following the midterm elections very closely, 66% say they have watched candidate debates this election cycle. But just 51% say most debates are informative.

As a practical matter, candidates who are behind tend to see debates as a chance to shake up the race while those who are ahead see them as an potential obstacle to be avoided.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on October 8-9, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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