Many members of the national media and campaign teams waited for hours at the media welcome center in the Laboratory Sciences building on Thursday in order to receive their credentials to enter the Debate Hall and Spin Alley, an unexpected delay.

“This is the worst debate screw-up since the sound went out at the 1976 Ford/Carter debate,” Thomas DeFrank of the New York Daily News said. “This is total chaos. Clearly there’s been a credentialing meltdown. They’ve had 60 days to get this right.”

DeFrank, a White House correspondent since the Lyndon Johnson administration, traces the problem to the presidential debate at the University of Mississippi, where reporters used credentials with the pictures of other people.

“I registered online before the deadline date,” Ai Awaji, the Washington D.C. Jiji Press correspondent said. “They said my name was on the list.”

Compounding the issue was the fact that many journalists decided to come to the debate at the last minute after the credentialing period was completed.

“Some members of the media said that they had credentials when they did not,” Rod, a representative of the CPD who did not give his last name, said.

While he acknowledged that some individuals with confirmed credentials were yet to receive passes, he would only add that those who asked for credentials at the last minute could not gain debate hall access.

Though credentials were being issued, the delays forced changes to broadcast schedules.

“They [the people inside LabSci] just can’t do anything for us. The clearance needed is in the Athletic Complex. I’ve covered many events and political happenings that required credentials authorized by the Secret Service. We’re already toast for the 5 [p.m.] and 6 [p.m.] spots,” Phil Witt, a reporter for WDAF-TV Kansas City, a Fox News affiliate, said.

Witt and his cameraman had been waiting since around 2 p.m. to gain access to the debate site.

“If we got our credentials now [3:50 p.m.], we might be able to get there even scrambling for six o’clock,” Witt said.

Members of the Commission on Presidential Debates scrambled while trying to get their credentials as journalists, cameramen, reporters and bloggers were forced to pace around the LabSci atrium waiting for debate access.

While unclear why credentials were delayed, LabSci started to empty around 2:30 p.m. after at least one member of most media units was cleared to enter the Athletic Complex.

Theories ranged from problems with background checks compiled by the Secret Service to confusion between which database was being used to retrieve the personal information needed for passes to be issued.

The Washington University Office of Public Affairs was unaffected by the delay, as it was able to issue restricted access passes and distribute press kits to any journalist when requested.

Susan McManus, professor of political science at the University of South Florida and correspondent for WFLA-TV, the Tampa NBC affiliate, waited for hours to get her credentials despite receiving conformation from the CPD that she was granted debate access.

“It’s really frustrating because my students and our viewer audience in Tampa, a battleground state, are very, very interested in this debate, and we’re thrilled that we have the opportunity to come out here and cover it,” McManus stated. “They just tell us to wait. Many of us would like to run around the campus to get photos to bring back home and stories to tell on the evening news, but we are just staring at each other.”