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![]() Federal matching funds
![]() Money supplied to campaign funds from public resources and administered by the Federal Election Commission.
Federal matching funds match donations made by individual contributors dollar-for-dollar up to a maximum of $250 per donation. Candidates are not obliged to take matching funds, but if they opt to do so they must restrict their spending to a maximum of approximately $40m during the presidential primary period. Funding is paid out in three stages:
This stems from a 1975 Supreme Court ruling, Buckley v. Valeo, which stated that donating money was a form of expression protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. To qualify for funds, candidates need to show they are viable by raising at least $100,000 in individual donations, including at least $5,000 in each of 20 states. Candidates who fail to receive at least 10% of the popular vote in two successive primary elections lose their eligibility for continued payments, unless and until they receive at least 20% of the vote in a later primary. The two major parties - Democrat and Republican - are automatically entitled to a public grant to pay for the cost of Presidential conventions. Minor parties - those who presidential candidates received between 5% and 25% of the vote in the preceding election - are also entitled to a smaller subsidy in proportion to the vote they received. New parties are not eligible. In the general election proper the two major parties receive a block grant, while minor parties receive an amount proportionate to the vote they received in previous elections. |
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