Poll taxes in the United States

Poll taxes were used in the United States until they were outlawed under section 10 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Poll taxes (taxes of a fixed amount on every liable individual, regardless of their income) had also been a major source of government funding among the colonies and states which went on to form the United States. Poll taxes became a tool of disenfranchisement in the South during Jim Crow, following the end of Reconstruction. The 24th Amendment, ratified January 23, 1964, abolished the use poll taxes for Federal elections in the United States. The operative clause reads:

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.

The ratification of the 24th Amendment was followed by the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to which section 10 empowered the United States Attorney General to bring lawsuits to enjoin poll taxes in State and local elections. Finally, in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (1966), the Supreme Court held that poll taxes violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.