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The Free & Equal Elections Foundation (Free & Equal) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization in the United States, the mission of which is to empower American voters through education and advocacy of electoral reforms. Free & Equal was first organized in 1982 as the Foundation for Free Campaigns and Elections, before being formally reorganized in 2008 by Christina Tobin, an American activist and leader in the election reform and voters' rights movement.
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2008
During the 2008 presidential election, Free & Equal hosted a presidential debate at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. on October, 23rd, 2008. Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin and independent candidate Ralph Nader participated in a debate moderated by award-winning journalist Chris Hedges. The Free & Equal debate was the only presidential debate featuring independent and third-party candidates held during the 2008 election to be broadcast to a national audience. The debate was broadcast live on C-SPAN2 in prime time.
2012
In 2012 Free & Equal sponsored the October 23, 2012 debate among four third party candidates for President of the United States. It featured Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party), Jill Stein (Green Party), Virgil Goode (Constitution Party) and Rocky Anderson (Justice Party). The debate was moderated by former Larry King Live host Larry King and Christina Tobin. It was televised by RT TV, Al Jazeera English and C-SPAN. On November 5, RT TV broadcast the two candidates voted winners of that debate, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, from RT TV’s Washington, DC studio. (The debate was postponed from October 30 because of Hurricane Sandy.)
2016
Free & Equal will host an open debate along with Student Voices Count at the University of Colorado Boulder's Macky Auditorium on October 25, 2016. Originally, all presidential candidates who have ballot access sufficient to represent a majority of electoral votes were invited. in October 2016 Free and Equal extended the invitation to all candidates with ballot lines representing at least fifteen percent of potential voters: the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Reform, and Socialism and Liberation parties, as well as independent candidate Evan McMullin. Gary Johnson, who participated in the 2012 debate, had already publicly declined in July 2016 to debate Jill Stein on The Young Turks because of a matter of "just time".