Like department store Santas, waiting all year for their time in the spotlight, undecided voters are now center stage. CNN turns to them regularly for post-debate analysis. NBC rounded them up for a town hall with Biden earlier this month. And, if the Commission on Presidential Debates ever succeeds in rescheduling the official Trump-Biden town hall, the Gallup organization will be asked to locate 100 of these rocket scientists to provide the questions.

It's difficult to imagine more ill-suited interrogators and analysts than folks who have witnessed more than three years of the Trump presidency, plus over 18 months of campaigning by Joe Biden, and still self-identify as "uncommitted." Yet, networks gush over them.

Following the last month's presidential debate, CNN asked 14 "undecided" voters who won. One said Biden; two said Trump. And, as you might expect from a group like this, 11 were...undecided. Undaunted, CNN rounded up 10 undecided voters to dissect the debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. Only two of the 10 were able to determine "a clear winner."

Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who somehow manages to be treated in certain corners as an objective journalist, gathered his own group of "undecided voters" to monitor the VP debate. Luntz reported that his viewers favored—wait for it—Mike Pence. As for Harris, "Her reaction-faces are really bothering people," Luntz tweeted mid-debate.

As awkward as it is to spend so much time wringing opinions from undecided voters, it's even less useful to rely on them to ask the questions in so-called town hall events. Even with a standard set-up, last month's Trump-Biden debate, moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News, was a fiasco. The vice presidential debate, moderated by Susan Page of USA Today was more civil, but Page's solid questions were often sidestepped by Harris and Pence.

If accomplished journalists like Wallace and Page struggle to craft the right questions while keeping order, what sense does it make to rely on nonprofessional audience members?

The town hall approach has been used by the Commission on Presidential Debates since 1996. It is promoted as a means of involving actual voters.

In the 2016 Trump-Clinton debate the very first town hall question was from a voter named Patrice Brock who wondered, "Do you feel you are modeling appropriate and positive behavior for today's youth?" A while later, a fellow named James Carter asked, "Do you believe you can be a devoted president to all the people in the United States?"

An NBC town hall with Biden earlier this month further underscored the weakness of the format. The host, Lester Holt, set the scene by explaining, "we are surrounded by dozens of undecided voters." Yet, according to reporting by The Washington Free Beacon, at least two of the "undecided" questioners at the NBC event had earlier appeared on MSNBC, where they were identified as Biden supporters.

Of course, it shouldn't really matter who asks a question, as long as it's a good one. But the queries from "real" voters tend to be softballs, with inadequate follow-up.

If voters are to participate in presidential town halls, it would be far better—and less suspicious—to have Trump supporters question Biden, and Biden supporters question the president. At least such an approach would probably spare us questions like the one posed in 2016's debate by an uncommitted gentleman named Karl Becker who said, "Name one positive thing that you respect in one another."

For the record, Clinton said "I respect his children." Trump noted that Clinton "doesn't quit."

The next town hall event will be Biden's solo appearance this Thursday on ABC, and possibly a town hall with Trump on a different network. It's possible that Biden and Trump will participate in a rescheduled CPD town hall the following week.

As for the role of undecided voters, I expect Jerry Seinfeld to tweet: "If you can't pick between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, maybe thinking up a question to ask on national television isn't your biggest problem."

(c) Peter Funt. This column originally appeared in USA Today.