DoomsdaysCW<p>What Is A <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PollTax" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PollTax</span></a>? Definition and Examples</p><p>By Robert Longley, July 27, 2022</p><p>Excerpt: "In the United States, the origin of the poll tax—and the controversy surrounding it—is associated with the agrarian unrest of the 1880s and 1890s, which culminated in the rise of the Populist Party in the Western and the Southern states. The Populists, representing low-income farmers, gave Democrats in these areas the only serious competition that they had experienced since the end of Reconstruction. The competition led both parties to see the need to attract Black citizens back into politics and to compete for their vote. As the Democrats defeated the Populists, they amended their state constitutions or drafted new ones to include various discriminatory disfranchising devices. When the payment of the poll tax was made a prerequisite to voting, impoverished <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackPeople" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BlackPeople</span></a> and often <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PoorWhitePeople" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PoorWhitePeople</span></a>, unable to afford the tax, were denied the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RightToVote" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>RightToVote</span></a>. </p><p>"During the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era in the United States, the former states of the Confederacy repurposed the poll tax explicitly to prevent formerly enslaved <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackAmericans" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BlackAmericans</span></a> from voting. Although the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/14thAmendment" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>14thAmendment</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/15thAmendment" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>15thAmendment</span></a> [s] gave Black men full <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/citizenship" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>citizenship</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VotingRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VotingRights</span></a>, the power to determine what constituted a qualified voter was left to the states. Beginning with Mississippi in 1890, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SouthernStates" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>SouthernStates</span></a> quickly exploited this legal loophole. At its 1890 constitutional convention, Mississippi imposed a $2.00 poll tax and early registration as a requirement for voting. This had catastrophic results for the Black electorate. Whereas approximately 87,000 Black citizens registered to vote in 1869, representing almost 97% of the eligible voting-age population, fewer than 9,000 of them registered to vote after the state’s new constitution took effect in 1892. </p><p>"Between 1890 and 1902, all eleven former <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Confederate" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Confederate</span></a> states imposed some form of a poll tax to deter Black Americans from voting. The tax, which ranged from $1 to $2, was prohibitively expensive for most Black sharecroppers, who earned their wages in crops, not currency. Beyond the cost, voter registration and tax payment offices were usually located in public spaces designed to intimidate potential voters, like courthouses and police stations.</p><p>"The southern states also enacted <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/JimCrowLaws" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>JimCrowLaws</span></a> intended to reinforce <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RacialSegregation" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>RacialSegregation</span></a> and restrict Black voting rights. Along with the poll tax, most of these states also imposed literacy tests, which required potential voters to read and interpret in writing sections of the state constitution. So-called 'grandfather clauses' allowed a person to vote without paying the poll tax or passing the literacy test if their father or grandfather had voted before the abolition of slavery in 1865; a stipulation that automatically precluded all formerly enslaved persons. Together, the grandfather clause and the literacy tests effectively restored voting rights to poorer White voters who could not pay the poll tax, while further suppressing the Black vote.</p><p>"Poll taxes of varying stipulations lingered in Southern states well into the 20th century. While some states abolished the tax in the years after World War I, others retained it. Ratified in 1964, the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/24thAmendment" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>24thAmendment</span></a> to the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/USConstitution" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>USConstitution</span></a> declared the tax unconstitutional in federal elections. </p><p>"Specifically, the 24th Amendment states:</p><p> '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.'</p><p>"President Lyndon B. Johnson called the amendment a 'triumph of liberty over restriction.' 'It is a verification of people's rights, which are rooted so deeply in the mainstream of this nation's history,' he said.</p><p>"The <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VotingRightsAct" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VotingRightsAct</span></a> of 1965 created significant changes in the voting status of Black Americans throughout the South. The law prohibited the states from using literacy tests and other methods of excluding Black Americans from voting. Before this, only an estimated twenty-three percent of voting-age Black citizens were registered nationally, but by 1969 the number had jumped to sixty-one percent. </p><p>"In 1966 the U.S. Supreme Court went beyond the Twenty-fourth Amendment by ruling in the case of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, states could not levy a poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in state and local elections. In two months in the spring of 1966, federal courts declared poll tax laws unconstitutional in the last four states that still had them, starting with Texas on February 9. Similar decisions soon followed in Alabama and Virginia. Mississippi's $2.00 poll tax (about $18 today) was the last to fall, declared unconstitutional on April 8, 1966."</p><p><a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/poll-tax-definition-and-examples-5443130" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">thoughtco.com/poll-tax-definit</span><span class="invisible">ion-and-examples-5443130</span></a><br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterDisenfranchisement" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterDisenfranchisement</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/USPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>USPol</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/USHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>USHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/TwentyFourthAmendment" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>TwentyFourthAmendment</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FourteenthAmendment" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>FourteenthAmendment</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FifteenthAmendment" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>FifteenthAmendment</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterRights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LiteracyTests" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LiteracyTests</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/USElections" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>USElections</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterSuppression" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterSuppression</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackAmericans" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BlackAmericans</span></a></p>
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#literacytests
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DoomsdaysCW<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Wisconsin" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Wisconsin</span></a>: What to know about April's <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterID" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterID</span></a> ballot referendum</p><p>By: Emilee Fannon, Mar 27, 2025 </p><p>MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- "Voters will not only have to present a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PhotoID" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PhotoID</span></a> to vote on April 1, but they'll also be asked about adding that requirement to the state constitution.</p><p>"It's part of a constitutional amendment that will appear on ballots across the state.</p><p>"The ballot referendum asks voters, 'shall section 1m of article III of the constitution be created to require that voters present valid photographic identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election, subject to exceptions which may be established by law?'</p><p>"A 'yes' vote would enshrine Wisconsin's voter requirement in the state constitution, a move that would make it harder for a court to strike down the law or for lawmakers to repeal.</p><p>"Voting 'no' would not add the state's voter ID law to the constitution.</p><p>"If the ballot measure is approved or rejected, little would change for Wisconsin voters because the existing photo ID law has been on the books for nearly a decade, said Bryna Godar at the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.</p><p>"However, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Republican" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Republican</span></a> lawmakers who authored the amendment say it's designed to protect the law from legal challenges in wake of the state Supreme Court gaining a 4-3 <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LiberalMajority" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LiberalMajority</span></a> in 2023."</p><p>Read more:<br /><a href="https://www.cbs58.com/news/what-to-know-about-aprils-voter-id-ballot-referendum" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">cbs58.com/news/what-to-know-ab</span><span class="invisible">out-aprils-voter-id-ballot-referendum</span></a><br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WisconsinPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WisconsinPol</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/USPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>USPol</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/TrumpIsPutinsPuppet" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>TrumpIsPutinsPuppet</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Fascism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Authoritarianism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Authoritarianism</span></a><br />Are <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LiteracyTests" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LiteracyTests</span></a> Next? <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterDisenfranchisement" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterDisenfranchisement</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CharacteristicsOfFascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>CharacteristicsOfFascism</span></a></p>
DoomsdaysCW<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Trump</span></a> seeks to mandate proof of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/citizenship" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>citizenship</span></a> in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterRegistration" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterRegistration</span></a></p><p>"Only about half of Americans have a U.S. passport, and only five states currently offer enhanced driver's licenses that show proof of citizenship."</p><p>By Jude Joffe-Block, March 26, 20251:09 AM ET</p><p>Excerpt: "<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VotingRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VotingRights</span></a> advocates, however, warn outdated databases can erroneously list naturalized citizens as noncitizens. Past efforts by states to purge noncitizens from voter rolls have sometimes swept up eligible U.S. citizens.</p><p>"The executive order also seeks to stop states from counting mail or absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day but received after by withholding funding from states that allow such ballots to be counted.</p><p>"Proof of citizenship requirement</p><p>"Ahead of the 2024 election, Trump and his allies made baseless claims about the threat of noncitizens voting in large numbers.</p><p>"The current federal voter registration form asks registrants to swear, under penalty of perjury, that they are U.S. citizens and eligible to vote, and to provide a driver's license number, state ID number or Social Security number. Those who attempt to vote illegally can face prison time, fines or deportation. Past audits and studies have shown such cases are incredibly rare.</p><p>"Yet Republicans have made requiring documentary proof of citizenship a policy priority. The executive order borrows heavily from the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SAVEAct" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>SAVEAct</span></a>, a Republican-backed bill. House Republicans have signaled that they intend to pass it in their chamber but it faces difficult odds in the Senate.</p><p>"The executive order shows <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Trump</span></a> isn't waiting for Congress. But legal experts say that he does not have the authority through <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ExecutiveOrder" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ExecutiveOrder</span></a> to make such changes, and the order conflicts with existing <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FederalVotingLaw" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>FederalVotingLaw</span></a>.</p><p>"'It's illegal at many different levels,' said Sean Morales-Doyle, the voting rights director at the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BrennanCenter" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BrennanCenter</span></a> for Justice, a nonprofit that studies and advocates for voting rights. The order directs the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ElectionAssistanceCommission" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ElectionAssistanceCommission</span></a>, a small, independent bipartisan agency, to make various changes, including to the federal <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterRegistration" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterRegistration</span></a> form, but Morales-Doyle said the president can't tell that commission what to do.</p><p>"Requiring documentary proof of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/citizenship" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>citizenship</span></a> would radically upend voter registration if such a mandate were to take effect.</p><p>"The order is explicit that applies to anyone who uses the federal voter registration form. What is less clear is if the order would also pressure states to require showing proof of citizenship with state registration forms, such as by <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WithholdingFunds" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WithholdingFunds</span></a>.</p><p>"The order only lists a limited number of ways to prove U.S. citizenship. The options given are a U.S. passport, an ID that complies with the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RealIDAct" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>RealIDAct</span></a> that shows citizenship or a military ID that shows citizenship. A fourth option is a valid government photo ID that 'indicates that the applicant is a United States citizen or if such identification is otherwise accompanied by proof of United States citizenship,' but does not say if a birth certificate would count."<br /> <br />Read more:<br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/26/g-s1-55927/trump-voting-citizenship-executive-order" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">npr.org/2025/03/26/g-s1-55927/</span><span class="invisible">trump-voting-citizenship-executive-order</span></a><br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/TrumpIsABully" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>TrumpIsABully</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/USPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>USPol</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/TrumpIsPutinsPuppet" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>TrumpIsPutinsPuppet</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Fascism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Authoritarianism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Authoritarianism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DictatorInChief" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DictatorInChief</span></a> <br />Are <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LiteracyTests" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LiteracyTests</span></a> Next? <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterDisenfranchisement" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterDisenfranchisement</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CharacteristicsOfFascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>CharacteristicsOfFascism</span></a></p>
DoomsdaysCW<p>How <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LiteracyTests" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LiteracyTests</span></a> Were Used To Stop <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackAmericans" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BlackAmericans</span></a> From Voting </p><p>By Katie Serena | Edited By John Kuroski </p><p>Published December 22, 2023<br />Updated January 18, 2024</p><p>"Presented as a means for assessing whether voters were educated enough to vote, literacy tests and other methods were designed for a single purpose: to stop Black Americans from voting."</p><p><a href="https://allthatsinteresting.com/voting-literacy-test" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">allthatsinteresting.com/voting</span><span class="invisible">-literacy-test</span></a></p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterSuppression" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterSuppression</span></a><br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/JimCrowLaws" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>JimCrowLaws</span></a><br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterDisinfranchisement" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterDisinfranchisement</span></a></p>
DoomsdaysCW<p>Son of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Sununuke" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Sununuke</span></a> strikes again! Yes, it's no surprise that <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Trump</span></a> supporter, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ChrisSununu" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ChrisSununu</span></a>, wants to make it harder for people to vote! What's next? <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LiteracyTests" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LiteracyTests</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PollTaxes" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PollTaxes</span></a>?!!</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NewHampshire" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>NewHampshire</span></a> governor signs voter proof-of-citizenship to take effect after November elections</p><p>The new law eliminates voter identification exceptions and would require those registering to vote to show a passport, birth certificate or other evidence of U.S. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/citizenship" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>citizenship</span></a>.</p><p>Original article:<br /><a href="https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2024/09/13/new-hampshire-governor-signs-voter-proof-of-citizenship-elections/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">boston.com/news/politics/2024/</span><span class="invisible">09/13/new-hampshire-governor-signs-voter-proof-of-citizenship-elections/</span></a></p><p>Archived:<br /><a href="https://archive.ph/wip/CZCFH" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">archive.ph/wip/CZCFH</span><span class="invisible"></span></a> </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterSuppression" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterSuppression</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/JimCrowLaws" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>JimCrowLaws</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VoterDisinfranchisement" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VoterDisinfranchisement</span></a></p>
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