Poll Tax

a tax levied upon each poll or head of population. The Federal Government has the power to levy such a tax in proportion to the enumeration or census, but has never exercised the power. In 164! a poll tax was levied in Maryland, each person being made to pay forty pounds of tobacco yearly for the support of the parish minister and the building of churches. Similar laws were pa ed in other colonies at various times. In 1860, according to a report made to the New York Legislature, twenty-seven States and Territories employed the poll tax, Soine States, as South Carolina, have constitutional provisions for levying the poll tax. In others, as in Ma achusetts, its payment is made a qualification for voting. 107