BUCKLEY v. VALEO Per Curiam 1 raise private contributions. Any disadvantage suffered by operation of the eligibility formulae under Subtitle H is thus limited to the claimed denial of the enhancement of opportunity to communicate with the electorate that the formulae afford eligible candidates. But eligible candidates suffer a countervailing denial. As we more fully develop later, acceptance of public financing entails voluntary acceptance of an expenditure ceiling. Noneligible candidates are not subject to that limitation.'29 Accordingly, we conclude that public financing is generally less restrictive of access to the electoral process than the ballot-access regulations dealt with in prior cases.139 In any event, Congress enacted Subtitle H in furtherance of sufficiently important governmental interests and has Appellants dispute the relevance of this answer to their argument on the ground that they will not be able to raise money to equal major-party spending. As a practical matter, however, Subtitle H does not enhance the major parties' ability to campaign; it substitutes public funding for what the parties would raise privately and additionally imposes an expenditure limit. If a party cannot raise funds privately, there are legitimate reasons not to provide public funding, which would effectively facilitate hopeless candidacies. :10 Our only prior decision dealing with a system of public financing, American Party of Texas v. White, 415 U. S. 767 (1974), also recognized that such provisions are less restrictive than regulation of ballot access. Texas required major parties-there called "political parties"-to nominate candidates by primaries, and the State reimbursed the parties for some of the expenses incurred in holding the primaries. But Texas did not subsidize other parties for the expenses involved in qualifying for the ballot, and this denial was claimed to be a denial of equal protection of the laws. We said that we were "unconvinced . . . that this financing law is an 'exclusionary mechanism' which 'tends to deny some voters the opportunity to vote for a candidate of their choosing' or that it has 'a real and appreciable impact on the exercise of the franchise.' " Id., at 794, quoting from Bullock v. Carter, 405 U. S., at 144. That the aid in American Party was provided to parties and not to candidates, as is most of the Subtitle H funding, is immaterial. 129