Clean Election generally refers to elections that are free of electoral fraud or deception. More specifically, clean election describes a system of taxpayer financing of political campaigns. Candidates who qualify by collecting a prescribed number of signatures and $5 contributions from registered voters in their electoral district can agree to not raise or spend any private money during the primary and general elections. Instead, a set amount of funding for the candidate's campaign is provided from the state budget. If the candidate is outspent by an opponent running a privately funded campaign, the state will provide more funding to the "clean" candidate in order to match the amount spent by the opponent, up to some multiple of the original funding.