24. Amendment to the United States Constitution
The 24th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America , the Twenty-fourth Amendment of 1964, states that no one can lose their voting rights due to tax debts.
text
English
- 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.
- The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
German:
- The right of United States citizens to elect the president or vice president, electors for president or vice president, or senators or representatives in Congress may not be denied or denied by the United States or any state for non-payment of poll tax or any other tax be restricted.
- Congress is empowered to implement this article through appropriate legislation.
history
The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) prohibited any discrimination against blacks and other racial minorities in voting rights. In order to still give the whites an advantage, some states introduced a so-called “poll tax” towards the end of the 19th century. The right to vote and to vote was only obtained after paying this usually very high tax. The so-called “grandfather clause” was decisive for the discriminatory effect: anyone whose father or grandfather was allowed to vote in this state in a certain year (before the liberation of slaves) can vote tax-free.
This poll tax fulfilled the letters of the Fifteenth Amendment, since the same formal conditions were imposed on both whites and blacks - either you pay the poll tax or you have a relative who enables you to use the grandfather clause.
The effect of the poll taxes was that by 1964 they excluded the vast majority of blacks and new immigrants from the elections in some states, as they were often poor and thus could not afford the "luxury" of voting. Only the long-established white families were effectively exempt from the tax through the grandfather clause.
