Elections & terms
poll tax
A fee charged as a condition of voting. Banned in federal elections by the Twenty-Fourth Amendment in 1964 and in state elections by the Supreme Court in 1966.
In full
Poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses were the facially neutral devices that carried out racial disenfranchisement after Reconstruction while avoiding the Fifteenth Amendment's explicit prohibition. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 suspended literacy tests; a permanent nationwide ban followed in 1975. The pattern is why courts now look at effects and not only stated purposes.
Also written as: literacy test, grandfather clause
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.