The third party president candidates for this year's election will have to sit out the first debate.

  • Johnson, Stein not invited to first presidential debate
  • Running mates not invited to vice presidential debate
  • CPD will take another look at polls before 2 other debates
  • FLORIDA DECIDES COVERAGE: Latest headlines | How to vote in Florida

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Friday that Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein will not be invited to the first official presidential debate on Sept. 26.

Their running mates will also not be invited to the vice presidential debate on Oct. 4.

The CPD says a presidential candidate must achieve 15 percent support in national polls in order to take part. The polling average is based off five polls, all tied to the major TV networks: ABC-Washington Post; CBS-New York Times; CNN-Opinion Research; Fox News; and NBC-Wall Street Journal.

The group says while Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump each received 43 percent and 40.4 percent in the polls, respectively, Johnson only got 8.4 percent and Stein got 3.2 percent.

Johnson said Friday in a statement that Americans were tired of rigged systems, and the CPD had created a monopoly on debates.

"The CPD may scoff at a ticket that enjoys ‘only’ 9 or 10% in their hand-selected polls, but even 9% represents 13 million voters, more than the total population of Ohio and most other states. Yet, the Republicans and Democrats are choosing to silence the candidate preferred by those millions of Americans."

Stein tweeted the following:

Last month the CPD did tell the networks to prepare for the chance a third candidate did reach the 15 percent threshhold, most likely Johnson.

The CPD says it will take another look at the polling before the second and third presidential debates, on Oct. 9 and Oct. 19.