poll tax

American  

[pohl] / poʊl /

noun

1. a capitation tax, the payment of which is sometimes a prerequisite to exercise the right of suffrage.

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poll tax British  

noun

1. a tax levied per head of adult population

2. an informal name for (the former) community charge

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poll tax Cultural  

1. A tax required as a qualification for voting. After the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution extended the vote to blacks in 1870, many southern states instituted poll taxes to prevent blacks from voting. The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1964, prohibits poll taxes for federal elections.

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Etymology

Origin of poll tax

First recorded in 1685–95

Example Sentences

Voter I.D. requirements aren’t the same as poll taxes or literacy tests.

From The Wall Street Journal

Congress’s aim was to prevent minorities from being disenfranchised by the likes of poll taxes.

From The Wall Street Journal

The scale of the arrests - at a level not seen since the poll tax riots in the 1990s - and the diversion of police from other areas was criticised by MPs, including many from Labour.

From BBC

From poll taxes abolished by the 24th Amendment in 1964 to barriers dismantled by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, every step forward has been a fight against deliberate disenfranchisement.

From Los Angeles Times

The poll taxes and literacy tests of that era operated under the idea that Black people were fundamentally unqualified to participate in democracy.

From Salon