ABSTRACT
Money can and does impact the democratic character of elections in the United States even though it may not dictate election outcomes. If a basic tenet of electoral democracy is the right of every adult citizen to exercise equal influence on an election, then the unequal distribution of resources spent by the candidates, parties, and non-party groups threatens that right. The costs of elections have skyrocketed in the last 50 years. During the 1960 election, Richard Nixon spent about $10 million in his race for the presidency. Congress enacted an amendment to the law in 1979 to enable the parties to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to promote voting through educational campaigns, get-out the-vote drives, and other party-building efforts. Money may not buy elections, but it sure helps candidates who have it or access to it. It allows them to jumpstart their campaigns.
