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.
The poll tax was one of several voter suppression tactics. Others were whites only primaries, grandfather clause, literacy tests, violence and threats of violence. These became necessary to counteract Amendment XV February 3, 1870.
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
These voting suppression measures were primarily used against the Negro, but some were adaptable to be used against other people who also were not proper people to be voting, such as other non-Negro poor, or foreign born, or of a race not considered 'white'. The southern white man resented the Yankee party, and resented equalisation of law benefiting the black man. These matters would allow conservative Democrats to rule the southern states with a disenfranchised underclass.
Now, when liberal Democrats finally passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 a newly cemented national party shift based on race occurred. Southern and conservative white Democrats were to become rare, as were black Republicans.
All these current supposed voter fraud procedures, and voter registration restrictions are new methods to disenfranchise people. The disenfranchising party is the Republican party. Although, it is directed at black voters, it also is directed at other groups that tend to vote Democratically, especially the economically disadvantaged. Beyond the use of legal and bureaucratic fiats, there is also a public campaign to shame and discourage such people. Some miscreant came up with the figure of “47%”, whom do not make enough to pay FEDERAL INCOME TAX. This is stressed to suggest pay no taxes. And demands are made that they should pay some federal income tax. Since they do not, their voting privilege is suspect. Of course, the “47%” do not all vote Democratically, but that screen would proportionally decrease the Democratic electorate.
Beyond that, the Republican party outright steals elections (2000, 2004 presidential) and go to extreme delay measures to prevent complete vote counts (US Senate Minnesota 2008). Recently Chris Christie* has publicly admitted that his party needs to win governorships to control the 2016 presidential election. Most states the chief election officer is the Secretary of State. When a Republican holds this office as is seen in Florida, Ohio, Kansas and elsewhere this is the most politically corrupt individual. They would all prove Josef Stalin correct, “You know, comrades, that I think in regard to this: I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.”
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* “Would you rather have Rick Scott in Florida overseeing the voting mechanism, or Charlie Crist? Would you rather have Scott Walker in Wisconsin overseeing the voting mechanism, or would you rather have Mary Burke? Who would you rather have in Ohio, John Kasich or Ed FitzGerald?” -- October 21, 2014.
postscriptum 11.48 a.m. October 30: or even easier, as in Georgia, do not process voter registration forms at all, and then get a Republican judge to rule there is no problem.
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