When the clock strikes midnight tonight, the September Democratic presidential debate stage will be set in stone, but a number of campaigns have already begun to lead the charge against the DNC. Sleeper candidates ranging from Tulsi Gabbard to Tom Steyer have lambasted the seemingly arbitrary selections of authorized pollsters for debate qualification. On the other side of the coin, critics point to Steyer’s success in meeting the DNC’s “small donor” requirement as evidence that a billionaire can potentially still buy his way into the October debate.

But the system was rigged from the get go. The DNC ought to have employed the same undercard debate system as the Republicans did in 2016. September’s likely ten-person lineup proves it.