A Short History of Public Funding of Elections in the U.S.

July 26, 2007 -- Efforts to reform how campaigns are financed date back at least to the Progressive Movement of the early 20th century. Among the first reform proposals was to use public money to finance campaigns.

“The need for collecting large campaign funds would vanish if Congress provided an appropriation for the proper and legitimate expenses of each of the great national parties,” President Theodore Roosevelt said in a 1907 address to Congress in which he also recommended banning corporations’ political contributions to presidential campaigns.[1]

Proposals for public funding of federal elections bubbled up throughout the 20th century. Although bills to provide public funding for congressional campaigns did not succeed, Congress did implement a system of partial public funding through matching funds for presidential campaigns. The system was first used in the 1976 presidential election.

Some states and cities have also adopted public funding of their elections.

Generally, there are two types of publicly funded elections: partial matching fund programs and full public financing.

In partial public financing systems, the government provides money to qualified candidates to pay for a portion, but not all, of their campaign expenses. Public funds in partial funding programs are usually awarded on a matching basis; a certain amount of public money is provided for each dollar the candidate raises in private contributions. Partial funding can also be provided through block grants in which the government provides a lump sum payment to candidates who meet specific criteria, such as raising a minimum amount of private contributions to demonstrate viability.

In full public financing systems, the government provides money to candidates to pay for nearly all of their campaign expenses in exchange for candidates’ agreeing not to accept any private campaign contributions beyond the seed money used to start their campaigns. Candidates typically qualify for funding by meeting specific qualification criteria, such as raising a certain number of modest contributions, for example, 1,500 qualifying checks of $5 each. This qualifying mechanism is intended to demonstrate that a large number of citizens support the candidate, while at the same time minimizing the amount of money a candidate can raise.

At the federal level, presidential candidates from parties with demonstrated support in the previous election are eligible for partial public financing in the primary election and full public financing in the general election. Congressional elections remain entirely privately funded.

Currently, the federal government, 14 states and about a dozen local jurisdictions provide some form of public financing of campaigns. The states with the most extensive public financing systems are Arizona, Connecticut and Maine, which have implemented full public funding systems for their legislative and gubernatorial races.

States and Cities Offering Full Public Funding