Lincoln Douglas Debate

Description of Lincoln Douglas Debate:
Lincoln Douglas debate is a relatively short debate between two debaters focusing on the conflicting values of societal and philosophical issues.

Resolution: National security concerns ought to be valued above individual rights.

Timing of the Round:
Debate competitors are expected to self-time their rounds and will need to bring a timer. Cell phones cannot be used as timers.

Guidelines for self-timing
• Debaters should use a count-down timer that beeps when time is up.
• Each debater will time his/her own speeches.
• The debater asking the questions will time the Cross Examination.
• Each debater will time their own prep-time and announce the time used to the judge and opposing debater.

Here is a video to learn to self time NOTE: Contrary to the video, it is customary for the student taking prep time to announce the time remaining. Also in Stoa, the student that is asking the questions in Cross Examination uses his/her timer – not the answering debater’s timer.

Judge Orientation: A combined Team Policy Debate and Lincoln Douglas Debate Judge Orientation PowerPoint based on the updated 2023 Judge Orientation slides will be used due to space and personnel limitations at the tournament. Please feel free to read and become familiar with the debate training slides content by clicking on the green links below.

Combined Lincoln Douglas and Team Policy Debate Orientation Slides

Tabulation: Lincoln Douglas will be flighted and each flighted debate will have its own judge. Lincoln Douglas will have 6 preliminary rounds, all randomly paired. The top two teams based on the preliminary standings will debate each other in a final round. For more information about the Tab procedures, please see Tabulation.

Lincoln Douglas Debate Rules and Lincoln Douglas Debate Ballot and Stoa Debate Evidence Standards

Please note that according to Stoa rules "Evidence" (a subset of support) is the oral verbatim reading of quoted text as well as an accompanying citation from a particular source that is publicly available. A Lincoln Douglas case may or may not contain any "evidence" according to this definition.