On August 23, Gabbard's campaign protested the failure of the DNC to release "their criteria for selecting the 16 polling organizations they deem 'certified'" for qualifying candidates for the third debate. In the campaign's statement, they listed 26 polls in which Gabbard reached the 2% threshold and alleged that certain "DNC-certified" polls were rated lower than non-certified polls by organizations such as the American Research Group and FiveThirtyEight, and questioned why only four qualifying polls were released following the second debate, while fourteen were released following the first debate; and why only two polls were released in the first two weeks after the second debate while six polls were released in the first two weeks after the first debate. The campaign further argued that the lack of polling was "particularly harmful to candidates with lower name-recognition." They called on the DNC to revise the set of polls it considers for qualifying and also asked them "to hold true to their promise and make adjustments to the process now to ensure transparency and fairness."
