Yesterday, the topic of 'poll taxes' popped into my head, and I was curious....what exactly did they amount to?
Well....after review....in the state of Alabama (from 1877 to 1966), the tax that you paid at the polling station as you voted was $1.50.
The most costly states? Main and Massachusetts, at $3.00.
Most southern states had a tax that varied from $1 to $1.50 at the station.
What'd it pay for? Mostly clerk cost to maintain the voter rolls and vote 'forms'.
What happened after it was outlawed in 1965? Well....the cost of the clerks, and the maintenance of the voter rolls simply went to regular taxation. So one tax disappeared and made folks happy, and the other tax came to replace it (via sales taxes in your local country or city). If you asked people about this....they wouldn't really grasp that there is a cost factor and someone is paying for that maintenance.
So, how many states still had voter taxes existing into the 1960s? Oddly....just seven. Yes, the bulk of them had already dumped it in the 1930s and 1940s. California dumped it in 1914. Louisiana dumped it in the Huey Long era (1934).
Confusing? I think a lot of people have been told grand stories, and if you lay out the whole landscape.....the bulk of the emphasis is marginal.
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