Free Essay 24th Amendment

HoustonHardhitta · Uploaded by **HoustonHardhitta** on Jan 3, 2006

24th Amendment

The Twenty-Fourth Amendment states that as a citizen of the United States you should not have to pay a tax to vote. The tax that the Twenty-Fourth Amendment abolished was colled the poll tax. The poll tax was levied on an individual used as a prerequisite for voting. Poll taxes are the same for all persons subject to them, regardless of their income, property or other taxes paid. One of the main reasons for the poll tax was to discourage African-Americans and poor people from voting.

This amendment was in fact needed. It was needed because the poll tax was keeping certain individuals from voting becuase of their income and/or their race, and that is unconstitutional according to the Fourteenth Amendment. It is ridicul.ous to have to pay to vote for something especially when you are voting to see who is going to run your own country. Voting is one of the many rights of every American citizen and as long as you are an American citizen you should be able to vote without paying.

I do not see any weaknesses in this amentment besides the fact that the poll tax did go toward helping with the election and without the poll tax there would be less money going towards that. Bu7t6, there are many other taxes that would go toward the election process anyway. This amendment was a step forward in equal rights and you can really see that today. Thanks to the Twenty-fourth Amendment every American citizen can vote regardless of his or her race or financial status. I do not really see much difference in the future with this amendment. Every American citizen is allowed to vote as long as you are eighteen and registered. I do not think that this amendment could go much further. I think it has gone as far as it can becuase nobody has had to pay to vote for an election since.

I have learned a great deal with researching the Twenty-Fourth Amendment. Before I started I did not know that the poll tax was based on racism and that you could be barred from boting becuase you did not payu a tax. I have read articles on men and women that have never been able to vote until this amendment was passed because they were poor and could not afford it. Some people were in their forties before they could bote and it would not surprise me if there wre peoiple that had not been able to vote until they were much older or someone who have never been able to vote at all. I tink today the younger population is taking advantage of being able to vote at eighteen and not having to pay a tax to do so. In time though I hope my generation will see the importance of voting and will do so in the future. It is a great honor and privilege to vote and to have the reedom to voice your opinion in a free election. Every four years we have a mini revolution where the powers of the wite house are either changed or stayed the same without a single shot being fired, without a single life being sacrificed, without races, religion, ethnic bacground, political stance and socical status being road blocks to keep us from boting backed by the Constitution and this amendment. It is a shame that so many people do not exorcise their right to vote with so little of an excuse such as rain. Even if we still had the poll tax, I believe that we wiould be right where we are today, maybe even worse. Who knows? But I do know that the poll tax to me was unconstitutional and that no matter what, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment was a must to bring American civilization together. In some way, that makes us all equal. Which is wast this country has been trying to do for a long time.