How did the poll tax become illegal?

Not long ago, citizens in some states had to pay a fee to vote in a national election. This fee was called a poll tax. On January 23, 1964, the United States ratified the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting any poll tax in elections for federal officials.

When was the poll tax made illegal?

On this date in 1962, the House passed the 24th Amendment, outlawing the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections, by a vote of 295 to 86.

Did the Voting Rights Act make poll taxes illegal?

The use of poll taxes in national elections had been abolished by the 24th amendment (1964) to the Constitution; the Voting Rights Act directed the Attorney General to challenge the use of poll taxes in state and local elections.

What was the focus of a poll tax?

In principle, poll taxes were adopted to ensure that eligible voters had sufficient financial independence to prove they were qualified and their vote could not be bought.

What was the purpose of the poll tax quizlet?

Ex: the purpose of the poll tax was to prevent African-Americans from voting. This was because many of them were sharecroppers and thus were poor. Ex: With poll taxes, poor people were discriminated because they were too poor to pay.

What were poll taxes quizlet?

What was the poll tax? Was also known as the community tax. It was a taxation system in which everyone in the community paid the same rate of tax, your wealth or status didn’t matter.

What were poll taxes used for?

In the United States, voting poll taxes (whose payment was a precondition to voting in an election) have been used to disenfranchise impoverished and minority voters (especially under Reconstruction).

What is a poll tax and who was it used against quizlet?

a tax a person is required to pay before he or she is allowed to vote. Poll taxes were used in many southern states after the Reconstruction period to restrict African-American citizens’ right to vote.

Are poll taxes legal quizlet?

A poll tax is a tax of a fixed amount per person that had to be paid before the person could vote. The 15th Amendment prohibits states from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Therefore, poll taxes did not violate the 15th Amendment.

What is 26th Constitutional Amendment?

Unratified Amendments: The Twenty-sixth Amendment (Amendment XXVI) to the United States Constitution prohibits the states and the federal government from using age as a reason for denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States who are at least eighteen years old.