The $3 checkbox nobody checks: How a Watergate-era reform became ‘irrelevant’

More than 150 million Americans fill out income tax forms every spring. Most scroll past one particular line: a tiny checkbox asking if they want $3 of their taxes to go to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. Once a cornerstone of post-Watergate campaign finance reform, the program it supports has become a relic of a bygone era, reports Joedy McCreary. Barely 3% of taxpayers participate. Virtually no presidential candidates use it. And in recent years, Congress has siphoned off most of its balance, including a 2024 redirection of more than $300 million to the U.S. Secret Service – leaving the fund with less than $30 million as of August 2026. Even in a midterm election year with no presidential candidate on the ballot, money continues to dominate the political landscape. House and Senate candidates are poised to shatter campaign spending records, and megadonors are pouring outside dollars into races nationwide. Meanwhile, the nation’s sole public financing system for campaigns sits virtually untouched by candidates while its balance has steadily dwindled. “The reason why it has essentially disappeared is that it became possible for candidates to raise many, many times more money,” said Kenneth Mayer, a retired political science professor at the University of Wisconsin. That disconnect between a campaign finance system dominated by private money and a public financing program that has withered into near‑irrelevance raises some central questions: What purpose does the Presidential Election Campaign Fund serve today – and why do the IRS and the Federal Election Commission still ask Americans to support it?

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opensecrets.org Sep 24 2026 e-mail