Courts won't allow a new poll tax

May 5, 2008

The editorial "A voting setback" (April 30) expressed concern over the Supreme Court ruling upholding Indiana's voter identification law and suggested, "It gives a green light to those who want to impose contemporary versions of poll taxes and literacy tests."

However, in 1964 the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution disallowed the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in federal elections.

Further, a 1966 Supreme Court ruling proclaimed that a poll tax violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, and thus extended this prohibition to all elections.

I hardly think that, in light of such decisions, we need to be overly concerned that any attempt "to impose a contemporary version of any poll tax" would withstand judicial review.

Chuck Marks

Perry Hall

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