No matter how you vote this year, and whether you vote by mail or in person, it is essential that you know each candidate's platform. No matter how crazy this year has been, November 3 is closer than you think (opens in new tab). The upcoming elections are crucial and (opens in new tab) your vote will matter more than ever.

Earlier, I explained who will be speaking, how to watch, and when the presidential debates will take place. Get ready to mark your calendars and we'll see you at the polling place (at a safe six-foot distance).

All debates will begin at 9:00 PM EST and run for 90 minutes without commercials. According to the Presidential Debate Commission (open in new tab), the first and third debates are six 15-minute segments. The topic of each segment is chosen and announced by the moderator at least one week before the debate.

For the second presidential debate, the format is intended to be more like a town hall meeting, with questions coming from the citizens of the location; the original schedule for the three debates is as follows:

Update 10/15: The September 29 debate went as scheduled, but President Trump tested positive for COVID-19 shortly thereafter, and the Presidential Debate Committee announced that the second debate would be held virtually. President Trump immediately stated that he would not participate in the virtual debate. Ultimately, two town halls (Joe Biden televised on ABC and Trump televised on NBC) were held on October 15.

The Trump and Biden teams went back and forth on whether to reschedule the second debate for a third, but both presidential candidates agreed that the originally scheduled third debate, on October 22, would be an appropriate time to meet face-to-face again. This will almost certainly be the last debate.

CPD announced the moderators for all three events on September 2, when it was announced that Fox News anchor Chris Wallace would moderate the first debate on September 29. He first served in that role during the third debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016.

For the second debate on October 15, Steve Scully, C-SPAN's political editor and host of The Washington Journal, was scheduled to moderate. (Scully was suspended from C-SPAN on the day he was expected to moderate, but he was not involved in the town hall anyway.) The third and final session will be hosted by NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker on October 22 at Belmont University in Nashville.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden were scheduled to debate at all three events. The New York Times (open in new tab) reported that President Trump "has discussed with advisers the possibility of missing the 2020 general election debates because of concerns about the committee overseeing the debates," but the president later denied the claim on Twitter

He has been in the process of discussing with the committee.

He wrote (opens in new tab), "I am very much looking forward to debating whoever is lucky enough to stumble across the finish line at the little monitored do nothing Democratic debate."

His camp also contacted the CPD in August (opens in new tab) and asked the CPD to include a fourth debate in early September. His camp also suggested moving the final October debate to the first week of September as another option. This would allow mail-in voters to watch a couple of debates before voting. Trump expressed his concerns on Twitter:

CPD rejected the campaign's request in early August and sent a letter (open in new tab) to the Trump campaign, saying, "More people will vote by mail in 2020, but the debate schedule has been and will continue to be much will be publicly announced. Voters who want to see one or more debates before they vote will be well aware of the opportunity."

Welker and CPD have revealed the six topics (open in new tab) that President Trump and Biden will discuss in the third debate on October 22:

According to CPD, they will not necessarily be discussed in this order. These topics are also subject to change as news develops. Days after the topics for the third debate were revealed, the Trump campaign wrote a two-page letter (opens in new tab) asking for changes to the issues.

"As has been our practice for many years and as promised by the Commission on Presidential Debates, we expected foreign policy to be the central focus of the October 22 debate. We urge you to recalibrate the topic and return to themes that have already been determined," Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien (open in new tab) said in the letter. [The Trump campaign believes the CPD is working in Biden's favor. Stepien expressed such concerns, writing, "It is completely irresponsible for the committee to change the focus of this final debate days before it is held just to insulate Biden from his own history."

Biden's National Press Secretary, TJ Ducklo, says that is not the case. Ducklo said in a statement, "Both camps and the committee agreed months ago that the debate moderator would pick the topics." (The Trump campaign is lying now for fear of being asked further questions about Donald Trump's disastrous response to COVID. As usual, the president is more concerned about the rules of the debate than giving a nation in crisis the help it needs."

The first presidential debate was certainly an interesting one. Loud President Trump, quotable phrases (aka Biden's "Shut up, dude (opens in new tab)" remark), Wallace's lack of moderation (opens in new tab), and his desire to crawl into bed at the end and never come out again. After that, there was no second debate, so the first debate was all that mattered as to how the third debate would go.

There was a lot of talk about the mute button, but a few days before the third debate, the CPD announced that the first debate "deprived voters of the opportunity to learn the candidates' positions on issues." This is the same format as the first debate, but unlike the first debate, the opposing candidate's microphone is muted for these two minutes. After that, the two candidates are free to exchange their views. The moderator will not be in charge of turning the microphone on and off, but rather the debate production staff.

If you are a cable cutter like me and rely on your laptop to get from point A to point B, you can stream the debate on ABCNews.com (opens in a new tab), ABC News, or the ABC mobile app. You can also watch from the ABC News Live app on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Roku, and Apple TV. It can also be viewed on C-SPAN.com (opens in a new tab) and the C-SPAN Radio app.

But if you don't have cable TV, you can watch the debate on all major networks, including NBC, C-SPAN, ABC, CBS, Fox News, and CNN.