[pohl] 
| a capitation tax, the payment of which is sometimes a prerequisite to exercise the right of suffrage. |
| poll tax n. A tax levied on people rather than on property, often as a requirement for voting. |
A tax required as a qualification for voting. After the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution extended the vote to blacks in 1870, many southern states instituted poll taxes to prevent blacks from voting. The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1964, prohibits poll taxes for federal elections.
