Twenty-fourth Amendment: No poll taxes in federal elections

A poll tax is a flat fee you had to pay before you could vote. Along with literacy tests, poll taxes kept many poor and Black citizens from the polls. The Twenty-fourth Amendment banned them in federal elections in 1964. Two years later, the Supreme Court used the Fourteenth Amendment to ban them in state and local elections too. Today no one can be charged to vote in any election, Williams City Council races included.

The text

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 any poll tax or other tax.

Source: National Archives transcription Verified1

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Source: National Archives transcription Verified1

What it says

• "In any primary or other election." Primaries count, not just November general elections Verified1.
• Federal offices only. It names elections for "President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress" Verified1. State and local elections came later, through Harper.
• "Any poll tax or other tax." Not just a poll tax: no tax of any kind may be a condition of voting in these elections Verified1.
• Section 2. Congress may enforce it Verified1.

History

"Property qualifications extend back to colonial days, but the poll tax itself as a qualification was instituted in eleven states of the South following the end of Reconstruction." By ratification in 1964, "only five states still retained it" Verified4.

Ratification was "the culmination of an endeavor begun in Congress in 1939." Congress saw the tax as "an obstacle to the proper exercise of a citizen's franchise" Verified4.

How courts read it

• Breedlove v. Suttles (1937). The Court upheld Georgia's "poll tax of one dollar," which exempted "females who do not register for voting" (Breedlove v. Suttles, 302 U.S. 277 (1937)) Verified5.
• Harman v. Forssenius (1965). Virginia gave federal voters a choice: pay the poll tax or file a certificate of residence six months before the election. The Court struck it down: "For federal elections, the poll tax is abolished absolutely as a prerequisite to voting, and no equivalent or milder substitute may be imposed" (Harman v. Forssenius, 380 U.S. 528 (1965)) Verified2.
• Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966). "A State violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard. Voter qualifications have no relation to wealth nor to paying or not paying this or any other tax" (Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966)) Verified3. The Court said this holds "whether the citizen, otherwise qualified to vote, has $1.50 in his pocket or nothing at all," and "To that extent the Breedlove case is overruled" Verified3.

In Williams

• No fee to vote, ever. No city, county or state election in Williams can charge voters or require them to be paid up on any tax Verified3. That covers council races and local tax measures.
• California's qualifications don't involve money. "A United States citizen 18 years of age and resident in this State may vote" (Art. II, §2) Verified6. And "A voter who casts a vote in an election in accordance with the laws of this State shall have that vote counted" (Art. II, §2.5) Verified6. See California Article II.
• Owing the city money doesn't matter. Our reading: under Harper, a resident behind on a utility bill or city fee can still vote. Paying a tax can't be an "electoral standard" Verified3.
• Different questions. Filing fees for candidates and fees for city services aren't covered by this amendment or by Harper's voter rule. See City fees.

Common misconceptions

• "The Twenty-fourth Amendment covers city elections." Its text covers only federal elections. Harper covers state and local ones Verified1,3.
• "A small fee is fine." Harper barred "payment of any fee," and Harman barred even a "milder substitute" in federal elections Verified3,2.
• "Poll taxes were only about race." They also kept poor voters of every race from voting. Harper rests on wealth discrimination Verified3.

Check yourself

Pick an answer for each question. You will see right away if it is right, and why.