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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 18, 2013 05:37 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Madeleine Dean |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Co-sponsorship of Resolution – 50th Anniversary of Pennsylvania voting to ratify the 24th Amendment |
| In the near future, I plan to introduce a resolution recognizing March 25, 2013 as the 50th anniversary of Pennsylvania voting to ratify the 24th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Pennsylvania was the 26th state to ratify the amendment. As you may know, the United States ratified the 24th Amendment, which abolished poll taxes in elections for federal officials, on January 23, 1964. In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that the poll tax was unconstitutional at every level, not just for federal elections under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The 24th Amendment was first proposed in 1949, but it was not until September 1962 that it was finally submitted to the states for ratification. The 24th Amendment paved the way for further voting rights legislation, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed all voting disenfranchisement practices throughout the South and the United States. Please join me in commemorating this important date in Pennsylvania's history by co-sponsoring this resolution. AMENDMENT XXIV Passed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 23, 1964. Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax. Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. |
Introduced as HR110