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.
Interpretation
People can not be denied the right to vote in federal elections – either primaries or general elections – because they had not paid a tax on voting. (Before this amendment, poor people, and most particularly ethnic and racial minorities, were effectively kept from voting by such “poll taxes” that they simply could not afford to pay. This prohibition on poll taxes was later extended to state and local elections, as well.)
