Voting Rights

In 1964, Arkansas voters approved a new state constitutional amendment that replaced the poll tax with a modern, permanent voter registration system. The same year, Amendment Twenty Four to the U.S. Constitution outlawed the use of the poll tax in federal elections. The poll tax had a long history in Arkansas that stretched back to 1893. Proponents of the poll tax claimed that it would decrease voter fraud. In practice, it only increased fraud in elections. It also had the effect of disenfranchising many African American and poor white voters. The poll tax proved a golden rule of politics that any device inserted as a barrier between a voter and the ballot box fundamentally serves to undermine democracy.