Constitution

The Twenty-fourth Amendment: Abolition of the Poll Tax

The Twenty-fourth Amendment bars poll taxes and other taxes as a condition of voting in federal elections.

4Conservative Editors · Published November 8, 2026

The text

Passed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 23, 1964.

Section 1.

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.

Section 2.

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

In plain English

Section 1. The right of citizens to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for presidential electors, or for Senator or Representative "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."

Section 2. Congress has power to enforce the Amendment.

A poll tax is a fee charged to vote. After Reconstruction, several Southern states adopted them, along with literacy tests and other devices, to keep Black citizens and many poor white citizens from voting. By 1962, five states still had poll taxes: Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia.

The Amendment applies to federal elections only. State and local elections were covered later by the Supreme Court's decision in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966), under the 14th Amendment.

It was ratified on January 23, 1964.

What the Founders said

The Constitution's original text left voter qualifications to the states, and the Founders had mixed views on property qualifications. By the time of the Civil War, most states had dropped property requirements for white men. The poll tax revived a financial barrier to voting.

Debate in Congress in 1962 showed that supporters preferred an amendment to a statute because they doubted that Congress could ban poll taxes through ordinary legislation under the Elections Clause. President Kennedy supported the approach as a way to avoid a long fight over a statute.

The Amendment passed the Senate in March 1962 and the House in August 1962.

How the courts have read it

  • Breedlove v. Suttles (1937): a Georgia poll tax did not violate the 14th or 19th Amendments.
  • Harman v. Forssenius (1965): Virginia could not require voters in federal elections either to pay a poll tax or to file a certificate of residence; the alternative burdened the right protected by the Amendment.
  • Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966): poll taxes in state elections violate the Equal Protection Clause; Breedlove was overruled.

Why it matters now

The Twenty-fourth Amendment is among the least controversial in the Constitution. Few Americans would defend charging a fee to vote, and the Amendment is a clear instance of a constitutional rule matching a widely held principle.

Its modern relevance appears in election-law debates. Photo identification requirements, for instance, have been challenged as a "poll tax" because of the cost of obtaining documents. Courts and the Supreme Court in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (2008), which upheld Indiana's voter ID law against a challenge under the Equal Protection Clause, have said that such requirements do not amount to a tax on voting, particularly where free identification is available. The question is a factual one, about whether a state removes costs for those who cannot afford them.

For conservatives, the lesson has two parts. The right to vote deserves protection from financial barriers, and the integrity of elections deserves reasonable safeguards. Reasonable states provide both, and the Amendment sets a floor.

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