Poll taxes in the United States

Prior the civil rights movement of the mid-1960s, US citizens in some states had to pay a fee to vote in an election. This was called a poll tax. Voters who could not afford to pay the poll tax could not legally vote. Poll taxes were most often found in southern states following the Civil War but were levied in other states as well. Other citizenship privileges, such as voter registration and driver’s licenses, were often also connected to the poll tax system.

Poll taxes were not initially meant to prevent people from voting but were a means to provide revenue to the government. However, the system of poll taxation did discourage many citizens from voting, especially those experiencing poverty. Following the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, Black men gained the right to vote, but many were prevented from voting because they could not afford the poll tax. The former Confederate southern states, in some cases, exploited the system of poll taxation to reduce the impact of Black voters on elections. Following the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it became illegal to charge a poll tax in any US state.

Background

Before the US became an independent country in 1776, it was a colony of the British Empire. The early colonists were required to pay poll taxes, although these taxes were not necessarily associated with voting. The word “poll” meant “head” in low German, a dialect closely related to English, so poll taxes were head taxes that each adult was required to pay. These taxes differed from income or property taxes because a poll tax was the same for every person, rich or poor. The money collected was a significant source of revenue for the government. A major issue that fueled the American Revolution was taxation without representation. The American colonists did not feel that they should have to pay taxes to the British government when they did not have the same representation within the government as British citizens.

Once the United Stats became independent in 1776, poll taxes could be levied by individual states as they saw fit. The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified by Congress in 1870, and this allowed all male citizens of any race, color, or history of slavery to have the legal right to vote. This was important because in many states, Black people made up a sizable portion of the population, which could affect election results.

Southern states, which were part of the former Confederacy that had lost the Civil War, saw this as an opportunity to suppress the influence of Black voters, who were generally poor. During Reconstruction following the Civil War, eleven southern states decided to charge a tax for a citizen to cast a vote in an election. These states were Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. While other northern or western states may also have charged poll taxes, these southern states specifically imposed the taxes to prevent formerly enslaved people from voting. As a result, even though Black adult males were eligible to vote following the passages of the Fifteenth Amendment, many could not vote.

The issue of poll taxes first went to the US Supreme Court in 1937 with the case Breedlove v. Suttles. The Court ruled that it was legal and reasonable for the state of Georgia to charge a poll tax, since states were allowed to make their own taxation laws. In 1951 the issue was raised again in the court with Butler v. Thompson. Nevertheless, the court again ruled that a poll tax was constitutional, and the case was dismissed.

In 1962, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment was passed, which changed election regulations and made poll taxes illegal. However, the amendment was not added to the Constitution until 1964, and despite its passage, some states still charged a poll tax. To add weight to the amendment and ensure equality in voting, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which helped to enforce the abolishment of poll taxes in all US states.

After this law, more cases related to voting impediments went to the Supreme Court. For example, in Harman v. Forssenius, the Supreme Court ruled that Virginia’s law requiring a citizen to file a certificate of residence six months prior to voting was in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The verdict of Breedlove v. Suttles, which previously allowed poll taxes, was also overruled when Harper v. Virginia Bd. of Elections went to court in 1966. The Supreme Court justices made it clear that any type of taxation was a direct obstacle to the inalienable right of the US citizen to vote.

Overview

If a state had a poll tax in place, a person was usually required to pay it before registering to vote. The cost might range from one to three dollars, which was expensive for people in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Then, voters had to bring their receipt to show proof of payment to cast their vote on election day. While this ensured that states had a reliable source of income and the taxes were duly paid, it disproportionately affected marginalized voters who had less money and might have difficulty keeping tax records. Some states used this to their advantage to discourage poorer classes from voting, in particular Black Americans.

All citizens of little means were affected unless they could find an exemption to the poll tax. Some states recognized this and allowed a poll tax exemption for White men who could qualify to vote under a grandfather clause. For example, in some states, a White man experiencing poverty was able to vote because the tax was waived if he could prove that he had a male family member who voted prior to the Civil War. No Black man or woman would possibly qualify for this exemption. However, poll tax exemptions were eventually ruled by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in 1915 and again in 1939.

Poll taxes were also often incorporated into Jim Crow laws, which promoted racial segregation following the emancipation of those who had been enslaved. Southern states sometimes imposed additional requirements related to the payment of poll taxes or eligibility to vote after paying them. For example, people paying a poll tax for the first time could be required to pay these taxes for several years before being allowed to vote. In other cases, such as in the states of Alabama and Georgia, poll taxes were cumulative. Therefore, to qualify to vote, people in Alabama would have to pay a certain amount for each year after their twenty-first birthday. Alternatively, people in Georgia had to pay any taxes due since the year 1877. When Black Americans who had been formerly enslaved were eligible to pay the poll tax, they might have a very large fee to pay, which was cost-prohibitive in most cases.

Other requirements made paying the poll tax difficult and further disenfranchised voters. Even if a voter had the money to pay, anyone who was not a White man may have been discouraged from voting. For example, a poll tax might be required to be paid in cash at a certain time or place such as a police station or other city office, which may have been inaccessible to reach or staffed by officials known to mistreat Black Americans or other marginalized people. Additional tactics to make it difficult for marginalized groups to vote existed, such as literacy tests and outright persecution, which made it nearly impossible for many to vote.

After the Twenty-Fourth Amendment and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which made poll taxes illegal in all states, changes were forced upon those states that continued to require a poll tax. Several southern states resented the change and tried to find loopholes or challenge the law in court. Some states even interpreted the law as only applying to national elections, and not state or local government elections. However, this was ruled as unconstitutional when the issues were brought before the Supreme Court. It became clear that requiring a citizen to pay a fee of any type before being able to cast a vote would no longer be tolerated.

Although the final abolition of poll taxation with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 reduced the financial burden and removed some impediments, voting rates of lower income citizens remained low even into the twenty-first century. The reason for this disparity is believed to be voting procedures with strict identification requirements, complicated registration processes, or inconvenient polling locations or times. As a result, fewer lower-income voters cast their votes, which often results in officials who promote policies that negatively affect people exeriencing poverty.

Bibliography

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“Poll Tax.” Encyclopedia Virginia, 9 Feb. 2023, encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/poll-tax/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.

“The Poll Tax in America, a Story.” African American Registry, aaregistry.org/story/the-poll-tax-in-america-a-brief-story/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.

Richardson, Valencia. “Voting While Poor: Reviving the 24th Amendment and Eliminating the Modern-Day Poll Tax.” Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, vol. 27, no. 3, 2020, www.law.georgetown.edu/poverty-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2020/06/05-Richardson‗Final‗Proof.pdf. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.

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