Candy Crowley Will Be First Female Presidential Debate Moderator in 20 Years

For the first time since 1992, a woman will be moderating one of the debates leading up to the presidential election.

Candy Crowley, CNN's chief political correspondent, will moderate the second of three October debates between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced Monday. The format of that debate, which will be held at New York's Hofstra University on Oct. 16, will be a town hall meeting.

Jim Lehrer from PBS' NewsHour will moderate the first debate, at the University of Denver on Oct. 3, and CBS News' Bob Schieffer will moderate the third, on Oct. 22 at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.

In a Boston Globe editorial over the weekend, the last woman to moderate a presidential debate, Carole Simpson, encouraged the commission to select a woman to moderate at least one of this year's debates.

Poll: Which woman should moderate a presidential debate?

In the editorial, the former ABC News correspondent said she was inspired by three teenage girls from New Jersey, who started a campaign to have a female moderator for the presidential debates. The three high school sophomores -- Sammi Siegel, 15, and Elena Tsemberis and Emma Axelrod, both 16 -- collected more than 170,000 signatures on an online petition through Change.org and attempted to deliver them by hand last month to Janet Brown, executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates. Brown was out of her office when the girls made their highly-publicized visit, and security would not allow them to leave the petitions in the building, according to the Washington Post.

The vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Romney's recently-announced running mate, Paul Ryan, will be held on Oct. 11 at Kentucky's Centre College, moderated by ABC News' Martha Raddatz.