Lesson 14.1 - Poll Taxes and Open Primaries
The 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified in 1964 making it unconstitutional for a state to use payment to taxes as a requirement to vote in national elections. Few blacks could vote in States using poll taxes as a requirement to vote because they had a little money. The poll tax to vote in these states was $1.50. After the ratification of the 24th Amendment a number of districts continued the practice of requiring a poll tax in order to vote. A woman named Evelyn T. Butts decided to take the poll tax issue to court. In October 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Evelyn T. Butts' appeal. In 1966 the Supreme Court of the United States declared Poll Taxes unconstitutional in accordance with the 24th Amendment.
A poll tax is a uniformed tax levied on every adult in the community. Poll taxes have their roots in ancient tax systems and have been criticized as an unfair burden on the poor. Historically, in the U.S., they were enacted in the South as a prerequisite for voting disfranchising many African-Americans and poor whites.
Some have argued that the spirit of the 24th Amendment also disallows closed primaries by leaving out of the process independent voters. As a result, a number of States have been passing laws enabling their States to make their election primaries open to all voters. In other words, in an open primary you can vote for anyone you want regardless of party affiliation during the primary election. These are called “Open Primaries.” Some proponents of the Open Primaries contend that Closed Primaries are unconstitutional - a violation of the 24th Amendment.
Though I am not a big fan of a "two-party system," I realize it is a natural result of human nature. For every issue there are those that support and oppose. As humans we tend to attract to those that think like ourselves, and parties ultimately form out of that natural organization. Political Parties are the natural result of this kind of political organization.
In a party system such as ours to allow voters to cross party-lines in the primaries can be dangerous because it opens up the potential for unethical voting techniques that are designed to injure the other party. Open primaries allow members of opposing parties to vote in their opponent's primary in the hopes of affecting the outcome, and putting the weaker candidate on the ballot so that their own party has a better chance to win. If both parties of a two party system is doing such, the result will always be the two weakest candidates facing off against each other. Open primaries nullify the whole point of the primary elections, and often result in the best candidates not being elected.
I understand that not all States have primaries, and the rules for choosing candidates for a particular party varies from state to state - as it should. Some States have caucuses, which are meetings of the members of a legislative body who are members of a particular political party, to select candidates. The choosing of the delegates varies from State to State.
States are given the authority to make their own election rules, and maintain the elections in their state, according to Article I, Section 4 of the United States Constitution. This is why the Florida-Chad controversy should have never resulted in the federal courts, or even the State courts, getting involved. The decision on what to do should have remained with the State Legislature.
Some supporters of Open Primaries contend that Closed Primaries are in violation of the 24th Amendment because limiting who can vote in a primary by party membership is a poll tax as per implied law.
A poll tax is a tax, or monetary amount expected as a prerequisite for voting. Closed Primaries do not impose a tax, and therefore are not in violation of the 24th Amendment, based on the language of the amendment. One may suggest that the 24th Amendment "implies" that no action can be taken to close any election to any person - but primaries are simply party oriented. People who couldn't vote in the primary would have been able to by joining a political party, and regardless of the ability to vote in the primaries, will be able to vote in the general election, and therefore are not being disallowed the opportunity to vote.
Simply put, the 24th Amendment specifically disallows poll taxes, and poll taxes are not in play in closed primaries. Therefore, closed primaries are not unconstitutional.
Unfortunately, neither are open primaries.
1 comment:
Open or closed primaries are kind of a joke, just switch your party affiliation with each upcoming election as necessary. Some campaigns it may be more important to 'pick a winner' in your own party, and other years you may want to promote a Loser from the opposition that will be easier to defeat in the general election.
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