Despite being consistently ranked in the top three in GOP presidential candidate preference polls, Ron Paul has been given the least time to speak OUT OF ALL THE CANDIDATES at the debates that have taken place thus far.

Confirmation of this fact comes in the form of a study from the University of Minnesota, published to the Smart Politics blog.

The study has tallied the total face time that candidates were afforded during the last three debates. The results speak for themselves.

TPM took these numbers and displayed them visually below:

Ron Paul has received just 18 minutes and 47 seconds of time, less than any other candidate, and less than half the time that Mitt Romney has been allowed.

Indeed, Romney has racked up a total of 41 minutes and 9 seconds of speaking time over the debates, close to seven minutes more than the next closest candidate, Rick Perry who has received 34 minutes, 12 seconds.

The Study notes that during Tuesday’s debate, Romney received a full quarter of the speaking time, meaning he had almost double the time of all the other candidates and approaching three times the amount Ron Paul was given.

Despite being placed third in a Harvard University Institute of Politics and New Hampshire Institute of Politics poll prior to the Washington Post/Bloomberg debate, Ron Paul received just 26 and 21 seconds more speaking time than Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum respectively.