Which case banned poll taxes in state elections?

• A. Wesberry v. Sanders
• B. Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
• C. Brown v. Board of Education
• D. Katzenbach v. Morgan

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is that voting cannot be conditioned on wealth. In Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966), the Supreme Court held that Virginia’s poll tax in state elections violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court explained that paying a tax to vote has no relation to a citizen’s qualifications and serves as an unjust barrier that discriminates against poorer voters. Although the federal poll tax ban existed from the 24th Amendment for federal elections, Harper extended the protection to state elections by striking down the wealth-based requirement. Other cases address different voting issues (district equality in Wesberry v. Sanders, school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, and literacy tests in Katzenbach v. Morgan), but none overturned poll taxes in state elections as Harper did.