Every four years, millions of people gather around their TV sets to watch the presidential and vice presidential debates.

And every four years, the journalists ask voters if the debates helped to make up their minds on which candidate to support on Election Day.

If you believe some of the voters in focus groups organized by CNN and other media outlets, what they hear during those 90-minute sessions can indeed do just that.

But an e-mail survey of The Telegraph’s Reader Advisory Network last week found that the debates this year have done little to influence how they intend to vote.

Here is the actual question I posed to our RAN members late Wednesday night, one day after the second of two debates between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama: “Have the debates had any influence on how you plan to vote in November? If so, how? If not, why not?”

To a person, the dozen members to respond said no, though that didn’t mean they didn’t see some value in the process.

“No, they have not, and I doubt they will because after listening to all the candidates for many months, I’m very sure how I’m going to vote,” wrote George Carvill, of Milford, an independent who supported John Kerry in 2004 and intends to back Obama next month. “It is difficult to conceive of anything that would change my mind.”

For Dave Burgess, a Hudson independent, the debates are an important part of the democratic process, even if they don’t tend to influence his vote.

“Personally, I find the debates to be more conducive to dialogue than anything,” wrote Burgess, who voted Republican last time and intends to vote for McCain this year. “All three debates (including the vice presidential one) so far have found me on the phone and on the computer discussing what was being said.”

But not everyone found the debates to be a worthwhile exercise.

Jacqueline Vital, of Nashua, who originally supported former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination, said she decided to vote for McCain only after he selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

Prior to that, she was planning to sit this one out.

“It was not the debates that changed my mind to vote, it was Sarah Palin’s speech she gave at the convention when John McCain added her to the ticket,” wrote Vital, a Republican who voted for President Bush in 2004.

“Personally, I think the debates are a waste of time. Talk, talk, talk about a lot of nothing.”

Diane Lothrop, a Nashua Republican, couldn’t agree more.

“The debates generally have no influence on my vote because you hear the same old tired pointed-finger statements from the candidates,” wrote Lothrop, who isn’t thrilled with either candidate but intends to vote for McCain.

“There is so little time for each candidate to respond to a given question that all we get is ‘soundbite’ answers.”

Lothrop wasn’t the only RAN member who believes the major problem with the debates is that they are not really debates at all.

“These were not formal debates, which would have been much more informative,” wrote Kirby Smith, of Nashua, who backed Kerry four years ago and plans to vote for Obama next month.

“These were just extended sound bites and opportunities for the public and media to seize on ‘gotcha’ gaffes.”

But the debates are not without their supporters, even if the current formats are inherently flawed.

“They have an illustrious history in this country, and it is refreshing to see the candidates as they are, rather than how they are edited to appear in campaign ads and in media sound/video bites,” wrote Vanessa Abraham, of Nashua, who has voted Democratic since she was 18. “I like to see how the candidates respond on their feet, as it gives a good sense of how they will appear as president.”

Still, even if they don’t influence people’s votes, they certainly do have a way of grabbing our attention.

The second presidential debate attracted 63.2 million viewers, according to figures compiled by Nielsen Media Research, nearly 11 million more than the first debate.

But both fell short of the more than 70 million people who watched the vice presidential match-up between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. In fact, that debate is now the second most-watched debate of all time, just behind the 80.6 million who viewed the 1980 debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Given that, maybe Chuck Hafemann, of Nashua, is correct in labeling the debates as a form of entertainment.

“Frankly, for people who hold strong, long-term views on basic issues, I think the debates serve mainly as amusement and a chance to see if your candidate will do anything noteworthy which can reinforce your views,” wrote the Republican McCain supporter.

For those who like to be amused, then, don’t forget the third and final presidential debate is Wednesday night on the campus of Hofstra University.

Nick Pappas is editorial page editor at The Telegraph. He can be reached at 594-6505. To become a member of our Reader Advisory Network, go to http://ran.nashuatelegraph.com.