Funding Fair Elections

Regarding the Jan. 23 front-page article "Clinton Bid Heralds Demise of Public Financing": It would be a terrible shame if the public financing system for presidential campaigns were written off.

The problem with the program is that it is voluntary on both sides of the equation. Those who pay federal income taxes may allocate $3 of their taxes to the election fund (a provision that neither reduces nor increases one's tax liability), and the candidates choose whether they want to accept public financing in return for abiding by certain restrictions.

If the system were mandatory, with the same $3 automatically applied from all tax returns, and if candidates were required by law to participate in the program, its success would be ensured, and our elections would no longer be for sale to the highest bidder.

Some have cried that such a system would violate First Amendment rights. But what about the public's right to free and fair elections?

WILLIAM J. SANTORO

Winchester, Mass.