Joe Biden and President Donald Trump will face off in person a total of three times (open in new tab) before the November 3 presidential election, but their running mates Kamala Harris and Mike Pence only once. The vice presidential debate (open in new tab) will take place on October 7 at the University of Utah's Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City.

As with the presidential debates, the rules for the Harris-Pence showdown are determined by the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonpartisan group that has sponsored and produced every presidential debate since 1988; the CPD is also working on the first debate between Biden and Trump in September (open new tab) and has yet to announce the latest rules (such as the presidential mute button) promised after that debate, but here's what we know so far about the format of the vice presidential debates.

The most obvious safety measure is the introduction of a Plexiglas safety shield. This barrier would be installed near Harris, Pence, and debate moderator Susan Page (open in new tab) to protect them from COVID aerosols that could be emitted by talking, coughing, and sneezing.

Even with the safety shield between them, Harris and Pence are more than 12 feet apart, and Page sits about the same distance from both candidates.

As with the presidential debates, Harris and Pence do not formally shake hands before or after the showdown. Both candidates will be tested for coronavirus before the debate begins, but the debate committee has not indicated what action will be taken if either of the two candidates tests positive.

Also, Harris, Pence, and Page will not wear masks during the debates, but all Kingsbury Hall audience members will be required to wear masks. According to the New York Times (opens in new tab), the CPD has promised to remove onlookers from the building who do not comply with the mask-wearing requirement.

The 90-minute debate will cover nine different topics, with 10 minutes allotted for each. The topics are determined by moderator Page and are not announced prior to the debate. Because Pence is chairman of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, at least one portion of the debate will likely be devoted to the government's COVID measures, and Harris may be grilled about his voting record in Congress on criminal justice and health care.

The exact format of how each 10-minute segment will be structured is unclear; in the first presidential debate, which was divided into six 15-minute sections, each candidate had two minutes to respond to the first question, followed by an opportunity to rebut his opponent's answer.

Harris and the Biden camp agreed. Pence and the Trump camp do not.

CPD's October 5 announcement of plans to add Plexiglas barriers to the debate stage was initially met with criticism and general disdain from the Pence camp. They also noted that even though Pence (who tested negative for COVID-19 as of October 6) attended the infamous Rose Garden ceremony (opens in new tab), which is believed to be at the heart of the recent outbreak among White House staffers and Republican leaders, and even though on October 6 a Despite traveling to Salt Lake City with Katie Miller, wife of Trump presidential aide Stephen Miller, who tested positive (opens in new tab), he reportedly claims not to have had close contact with anyone who recently tested positive.

In response to Pence's rebuke, Harris campaign spokesperson Sabrina Singh told CNN (open in new tab), "Senator Harris will attend the debate out of respect for the protections the Cleveland Clinic has put in place to promote safety for all involved. If the Trump administration's mask wars are now safety shield wars, it says it all about why their COVID response is a failure"

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However, according to the Post, Pence and his team eventually announced the night before the debate that they would allow one of the barriers to be placed next to the current vice president.

Watch the proceedings on October 7 at 9 p.m. ET on the major news networks or on a live stream on YouTube