Twenty-Fourth Amendment - Abolition of Poll Taxes
Original Text
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
In Plain Language
No one can be required to pay a tax to vote in federal elections. Poll taxes were used primarily in the South to prevent poor Black citizens from voting.
Historical Significance
Poll taxes in federal elections became illegal on January 23, 1964. Southern states had charged $1–2 to vote, which blocked poor Black and white voters. Virginia kept its poll tax for state elections until the Supreme Court banned it in Harper v. Virginia (1966).
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Key Concepts0/6
Historical Context
Poll taxes anchored the Jim Crow system. Southern states imposed them after Reconstruction knowing newly freed Black citizens lacked cash. When combined with grandfather clauses exempting descendants of pre-Civil War voters, poll taxes locked Black Americans out of elections for decades.
Congress proposed the Twenty-Fourth Amendment on August 27, 1962; states ratified it on January 23, 1964—banning poll taxes in federal elections. Two years later, the Supreme Court in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966) extended the ban to state and local elections under the Equal Protection Clause. The amendment targeted a specific mechanism; the Court used the Constitution's equal protection guarantee to sweep away what remained.
How This Shows Up Today
Explicit poll taxes are gone, but financial barriers persist. Florida voters passed Amendment 4 in 2018 to restore voting rights to 1.4 million people with felony convictions. Governor Ron DeSantis signed SB 7066 in 2019, requiring full payment of all court fines and fees before restored rights take effect. The Eleventh Circuit upheld that requirement in 2020. An estimated 730,000 Floridians who've completed their sentences still can't vote because they owe money—what civil rights groups call a modern poll tax. Critics also cite voter ID costs and wages lost standing in long lines as less visible financial barriers to the ballot.
Harper v. Virginia (1966) extended to state elections
Modern voter ID cost debates
Felon re-enfranchisement fee debates
Discussion Questions4
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