The indicated funds—originally $1 and implemented in 1966[1] and changed to $3 in 1994[2]—began as a start to public funding of elections to provide for the financing of presidential primary and general-election campaigns, as well as national party conventions.
Both the Republican and Democratic nominees in the general election receive a fixed amount of checkoff dollars.
Nominees from other political parties may qualify for a smaller, proportionate amount of checkoff funds if they receive more than 5% of the vote.
The campaign fund reduces a candidate's dependence on large contributions from individuals and special-interest groups.
Only candidates seeking nomination by a political party to the office of president are eligible to receive primary matching funds.
Tom Tancredo,[5] John Edwards,[6] Chris Dodd,[7] Joe Biden,[8] Dennis Kucinich,[9] and Duncan Hunter[10] qualified for and elected to take public funds in the primary.
To be eligible to receive the public funds, the candidate must limit spending to the amount of the grant and cannot accept private contributions for the campaign.
However, in 2007, the FEC ruled that up to 5% of broadcast advertising can be paid for using GELACs, since that is time nominally spent on the required disclaimers under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, namely I approve this message.
Two other reasons cited for the decline are an erroneous belief that donations increase tax liability and a general apathy toward the political duopoly.
2019; 113th Congress), which was passed into law on April 3, 2014, diverts the money in the Presidential Election Campaign Fund which was earmarked for party conventions, to pay for research into pediatric cancer through the National Institutes of Health.