The Google+ IVN Debate between third party presidential candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein will start in just a few hours at 7pm Eastern on Thursday, October 18th. It will be webcast live over Google+ Hangout, and can be viewed here at IVN.us.

Here are five ways the third party Google+ IVN debate will be different from those of the Commission on Presidential Debates:

1. Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, who are both on enough state ballots to conceivably win the presidency in November, were both excluded from the CPD debates, but were both invited to and will both be participating in the Google+ IVN debate today.

2. While Johnson and Stein want to debate at the CPD debates, but aren't allowed to, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney would be welcome at the Google+ IVN debate, but refuse to participate in any debates other than the three exclusive ones negotiated between their campaigns in a contract executed by the CPD.

3. The Google+ IVN debate will include real, unfiltered questions from regular people, not cherry-picked softball questions. The questions will address topics on key issues of substance ignored in the CPD debates, and unlike the CPD debates, for which the topics have all been made available to the candidates ahead of time, there will be one surprise topic based on viewer response which the candidates will not know about ahead of time.

4. The candidates in the Google+ IVN debate have been asked to respect IVN's Etiquette guidelines, which require no personal nor partisan-based attacks like those you may have heard at the CPD debates, but a substantive focus on the issues and the facts.

5. Unlike the expensive CPD debates, the Google+ IVN debate is being hosted by Google+ and The Independent Voter Network at virtually zero cost, applying the cost-saving efficiency and awesome technological tools of California's Silicon Valley to America's 21st century democracy. The debate participants and moderator will all be participating in the debate from different states with the help of a skilled team of Google+ engineers.

http://youtu.be/GowJJa6s7g8